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The Abingdon Religious Education T 4. 
David ©. Downey, General Coditor GL OgiCAL seus 


WEEK-DAY SCHOOL SERIES GEORGE HERBERT BETTS, Editor 


Builders of the 
Church 


By | 
ROBERT LEONARD ‘TUCKER 





iat 


THE ABINGDON PRESS 
NEW YORK CINCINNATI 


Copyright, 1924, by 
ROBERT LEONARD TUCKER 


All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign 
languages, including the Scandinavian 


Printed in the United States of America 


TO 
RICHARD PHILIP 
A BUILDER WHO IN THE REALMS 
OF LIGHT WITH OTHER LADS AND 
LASSES HEARTENS THOSE TOILING 
TO MAKE FIRM THE BASTIONS AND 
PINNACLES OF THE CITY OF OUR GOD 





CHAPTER 


XII. 


XIII. 


XIV. 
XV. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 
eR ESE ACI GE an eno FON oa ee stare Weal sats lel eS eae GT é 7 
INTRODUCTION ere eee CE glue Cig eRe Me 9 
BUILDING THE FOUNDATION 
Tue NEw SPIRIT IN AN OLD CIVILIZATION......... 13 
ATHANASIUS: THE MAN WHO DEFENDED His PRIN- 
CIPLES ert. Ta cee eet ered ose een hate a Wee Smaak 21 
AUGUSTINE: THE MAN WHO FOUGHT SUPERSTITION 
ANDES PAT Rin ra wit seat a: comental ve teas Wie ete o) Git ak ene 29 
THE EXPANSION OF CHRISTIANITY 
IIL DEBRANDATHE, IMPRRIALIST..o4,. cule cau suis sinks 4! 
BERNARD, THE GREAT MONK OF CLAIRVAUX....... 50 
SAINT FRANCIS AND THE MENDICANT ORDERS...... 59 
JOHN Huss AND THE RISING DISCONTENT.......... 67 
THE MAN WHO STRADDLED A MORAL ISSUE........ 76 
MARTIN LUTHER—A PROPHET WITH A GREAT LIGHT 84 
JoHN Knox TAKES UP THE TORCH............... 94 
PUSHING BACK THE HORIZONS 
Huco Grotius, WHo DEDICATED A BRILLIANT MIND 
10: THE: (CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT ots: . aaelsulee ine 105 
LoYOLA AND THE FOUNDING OF THE SOCIETY OF 
JESUS Uhl SA cap ena SL a A Pe JN a Ngai tly Sy RO AR 115 
ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE BEGINNING OF THE SPIRIT 
OPW OLER ATION Uren tr Alone Goins ch oie ay a Memetentts el aie 125 
JOHN WESLEY AND THE EVANGELICAL REVIVAL .... 135 


THE GREAT AWAKENING IN AMERICA .........--5- 145 


6 


CHAPTER 


XVI. 
XVII. 


XVIII. 


XIX. 


XX. 


XXI. 


XXII. 


XXIII. 
XXIV. 


KXV. 
XXXVI, 
XXVII. 
XXVIII. 


XXIX. 
XXX. 


XXXI. 


XXXIT. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 
THE MODERN MOVEMENT 
Francis ASBURY, WHO DARED GO FOR GoD... 155 
THE CHAMPION OF BROAD-MINDEDNESS AND 
TOLERATION—WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING.... 164 
Horace BUSHNELL RESTORES CHILDREN TO THEIR 
PLACE IN THE? CHURCH. Teen 174 
Davip LIVINGSTONE AND THE RISE OF MODERN 
MISSIONS \.i0)4) cel sats ellebe oie nae Col ee 184 
CHARLES KINGSLEY, A LOVER OF THE COMMON 
PROPLE sie clscie a fla betty Rpitea) da al, a eee 195 
ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE AND THE THEORY OF 
EVOLUTION § vicistebioe ee ea er 206 
GEORGE MULLER BUILDS A PLACE FOR CHILDREN 
IN‘ THE (CHURCH Yt 21 GUE. ee cle ee 217 


WILLIAM BooTH, OR THE GOSPEL FOR OUTCASTS 229 
FRANCES E. WILLARD—A WOMAN BUILDER IN 


THE KINGDOM 6) 000) es isso Oe 239 
DwicHt L. Moopy AND EVANGELISM........... 249 
ROBERT E. LEE—A CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN..... 258 
BooKxerR T. WASHINGTON—A NEGRO PROPHET... 269 
A BUILDER OF A’ NORLER'CITV. 20202 2) a ere 280 
THE POET IS A BUILDER OF THE CHURCH.......... 292 
WILLIAM TAYLOR AND THE BUILDING OF AN INTER- 

NATIONAL,’ CHURCH tM uy). ts ss Se 304 
WASHINGTON GLADDEN APPLIES CHRISTIANITY TO 

POLITICS’ AND’ INDUSTRY <.'0. : )..2 cee 314 
A PRESIDENT HELPS BuILD THE CHURCH—ROOSE- 

VEL ere ia 8 eds Waele lois tyjt cee hal tee 324 
CONCLUSION Hk On aa OI oad a a 334 
INDEX Ho RE ey oa 0 336 


PREFACE 


SucH productions as The Outline of Science, by Pro- 
fessor J. A. Thomson, and Mr. H. G. Wells’ Outline of 
History have set a new but not exclusive vogue in history, 
and demonstrated the worth in that picture of the 
world’s vitality which is looked upon from long range 
and delineated with broad and heavy line. We are 1m- 
pressed that it is of major importance to appreciate first 
the high lights and prominent features of the story of 
mankind—and afterward those meticulous details so 
needful to make this picture complete and exact. Above 
all, however, our epic must be shot through with per- 
sonality. 

So it is with the story of the church. Here, by means 
of notable biographies—the Builders of the Church—an 
interpretation of some of the most crucial episodes in 
the church’s life is sought. Some strive to behold the 
lives of men reflected in the life of the church; but our 
goal is the inverse of this—to see the life of the church 
through the lives of men. 

The Builders of the Church here portrayed are human 
men caught up by that eternal wistfulness for the King- 
dom—and the King. Sketches only of their lives are 
given—obviously no claim to any kind of exhaustiveness 
or overaccurate balance of presentation is made because 
of limited space—yet it is hoped that the narrative will 
be found correct as far as it goes, and will whet the 
reader’s appetite until he turns to the great sources and 
secures the facts in their entirety. Biographies here 
given must be necessarily somewhat one-sided, as they are 
rendered primarily in behalf of youth in its early teens, 
still it is hoped that those older in years may find them 
profitable. Such readings as are suggested at the conclu- 


fi 


8 PREFACE 


sion of each chapter are for the most part among the 
best readily accessible in English, when brevity is con- 
sidered. 

To many encouraging friends am I indebted in the 
preparation of this task: to the editors who have evi- 
_denced a spirit of helpful cooperation and have extended 
me many thoughtful courtesies; to my esteemed friend, 
Professor John Alfred Faulkner, who has favored me with 
much scholarly information for which he is conspicuous ; 
to my other friend, that distinguished preacher, the Rever- 
end Lynn Harold Hough, with whom I have been privi- 
leged to counsel freely, and who, though giving with 
gracious generosity from his rich stores of historical facts, 
is in no wise responsible for any blemishes herein con- 
tained; to Miss Adella Mae Green, of the staff of the State 
Library at Hartford, Connecticut, whose unusually efh- 
cient aid in the preparation of my manuscript has been 
invaluable; and to Miss Marion O. Hawthorne, instruc- 
tor in Northwestern University, who so skillfully has 
formulated the questions at the end of each chapter. 

Liga Pagid 

Detroit, Michigan. 


INTRODUCTION 


WHEN the flag 1s borne proudly down the street at the «~ 


head of the procession, while the band blares forth its 
martial music, thoughtful and respectable men remove 
their hats in reverence. And why on earth do they do 
it? The flag usually is made of the discarded covering 
from a sheep’s back and dyed in red, white, and blue 
with colors derived from dirty, black coal. What non- 
sense for any sensible people to remove their hats and 
bow! But any boy or girl can tell that it is neither wool 
nor aniline dye before which noble men bow. Indeed, no. 
They take off their hats to that for which the flag stands. 


The flag is a symbol. It represents the honor of America; 


it stands for the soldier who died for his country, for the 
wounded going about the streets, for the widow who lost 
her husband in battle, for men and women fighting for 
justice and right, for the loyalty which makes men gladly 
sacrifice anything for America. This flag is the symbol 
of something very real—the spirit of America. 


The church is a symbol. It represents a beautiful ‘ 


spirit endowed with power, love, and righteousness un- 
rivaled anywhere in the world. It stands for the spirit of 
Christ Jesus. In these pages we are not thinking of the 
church as a building, nor as an institution; neither are we 
thinking of it primarily as a group of people. But, 
rather, are we dealing with the church as a symbol of that 
gigantic endeavor to make Christ’s matchless personality 
the one winsome ideal to captivate all men everywhere. 
Jesus brought the world a very simple message: he 
introduced men to God, whom he called their heavenly 
Father. He taught them how to have good will one 
toward the other and so live in true brotherhood. He 
persuaded them that their personalities were undying and 


2 


b 


— 


10 INTRODUCTION 


that love was immortal. He challenged men to a new 
Way of Life which would usher in what he called “the 
kingdom of God.” And he believed so tremendously in 
his message that he died for it. Behind such a message 
men were quick to discern an exalted spirit of compelling 
might. So entranced were they that immediately after 
the death of Jesus they set out, determined to make this 
spirit of his supreme throughout the entire world. 

The church is the evidence of this age-long attempt to 
make this spirit conqueror. And the men into whose lives 
we are to glance are the witnesses in behalf of this living, 
dynamic personality of Christ. It is our business to see 
what this spirit did, how it worked, and what effects it 
has wrought upon the world. 


BUILDING THE FOUNDATION 





CHAPTER I 
VOD ENEWeS PLR CP INGAN OLD: CIVIEIZATION 


ANy hopeless despair resulting from the death of Jesus 
was momentary, for soon his erstwhile discouraged disci- 
ples were everywhere proclaiming a risen Christ, while 
on every hand this spirit of Christ was capturing the 
hearts of all people. 

The conversion of Paul.—Among those giving alle- 


giance to Jesus Christ was that mighty giant—Paul. The " 


fact of his “religious experience’ was a romance. A 
young man traveling to Damascus with warrants to 
arrest the Christians was smitten to the quick with a 
great truth. The spirit of Christ flashed upon his soul as 
lightning and he was blinded. Falling to the earth, he 
heard the words, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou 
me?” “Who art thou, Lord?” asked Paul. And the an- 
swer came, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” We do 
not know all that took place in Paul’s personality at that 


time, but one thing is certain—he was transformed from ~ 


an enemy of Jesus Christ to a friend. 

Yet so violent had been the activities of Paul against 
the Christians and so bad his reputation that the apostles 
doubted his sincerity. Finally, however, Peter became 
friendly and took the new convert to his own home. 

Nothing very unusual seemed to have happened in the 
church, and many even forgot about Paul, who dis- 
appeared. Into the stillness of the Arabian desert he 
went, to ponder his “experience,” and in a thorough 
manner he began anew to rebuild the structure of his 
life. Consuming fourteen years at this task, he traveled 
privately to Jerusalem, modestly to assume an active part 
in the work of a very small, very weak, and very poor 
body of people called the Christian Church. 


13 


14 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


The personality of Paul.—Probably a thick-set, short 
man with a pronounced nose and high forehead and deep- 
set eyes was Paul. By nature he was neither burly nor 
rugged. Indeed, it would appear he was afflicted with 
some severe constitutional disease which was a source of 


™~ constant distress to him, but he never openly mentioned it. 


The spirit of Paul dominated what otherwise 
might have been -a weak, useless body. His physique 
was “the temple of the Holy Spirit.” He held it under 
complete control and made it become “all things to all 
men” in his business of saving lives befouled with evil. 
By prayer, by long periods of meditation and chiefly by a 
complete self-surrender to the spirit and ideals of Christ, 
he disciplined his body until it became a servant in a tre- 
mendous cause. 

Paul was no lonely, sallow-faced ascetic. He loved 
people with a great affection, even though they were 
wrong. He associated with youths of such vigor as 
Barnabas, Timothy, Silas, and Titus. A thoughtful 
courtesy endeared him to the strongest and bravest of 
men. Then, too, Paul had brains. He was well trained, a 
leader in his classes at the university, and had the best 
of teachers. By training a Greek, he loved beauty; but 
because he was born a Jew the Jewish ideals of rugged 
morality found in him a hearty response. Above all he 
was a man who could not think in local terms; but was 
~ world-wide and imperial in plans—in this he was a Ro- 
man. 

A gigantic will crowned Paul’s character. He simply 
would not give in. Writing to a friend he said: “I have 
been often at the point of death; five times have I got 
forty lashes from the Jews, I have been beaten by the 
Romans, once pelted with stones, three times ship- 
wrecked, adrift in the sea for a whole night and a day: I 
have been often on my travels, I have been in danger 
from rivers and robbers, in danger from Jews and Gen- 
tiles, through dangers of town and desert, through 


NEW SPIRIT IN OLD CIVILIZATION 15 


dangers on the sea, through dangers among false brothers 
—through labor and hardship, through many a sleepless 
night, through hunger and thirst, starving many a time, 
cold and ill clad, and all the rest of it.’ This man’s grip 
upon truth was so strong that he initiated and carried 
through a program which found the new Christian cult 
provincial, and left it with an enthusiasm for a world- 
wide imperialism. A man with a will such as this can- 
not be ignored by men determined to see life as it is. 

The battle for a world-wide religion.—Since Chris- 
tianity found its beginning among the Jews, it was most 
natural that its adherents should desire to conform to the 
customs of their sires—and insist that all comers should 
conform to Jewish habits also. These early Christians 
were unable to see that if their narrow policy were pur- 
sued, Christianity would remain merely a sect of Ju- 
daism, such as was Sadduceeism or Pharisaism. Four- 
teen years Paul worked among the Jews and Gentiles of 
Antioch and Tarsus and found this narrow-minded 
opposition becoming stronger. He went to Jerusalem 
and met leaders of the church, declaring it was all non- 
sense for a newly made Christian to be forced to conform 
to the detailed intricacies of Hebrew law and that cir- 
cumcision and a hundred odd rites were needless. He 
flung the question at his startled hearers—*‘What is Chris- 
tianity anyhow?’ Peter asserted it was to give con- 
formity to rules and certain rites. Paul maintained that 
Christianity was a life which resulted when a person 
became aware that his very self was dominated by the 
spirit of Christ. To Paul’s cry, “No exclusiveness,” the 
leaders were forced to give a hearing. The result was 
that an aloof attitude toward men in trouble was con- 
demned. Christianity was no longer to continue limited 
to Jews. It was to be world-wide and for everybody. 
It was decided that not a historical inheritance of form 
and custom but the presence of a living faith was the evi- 
dence of a true church. 


16 BUILDERS: OP VTHE -GEURGE 


The missionary journeys.—Having won this victory, 
Paul set out to give himself in service to the Gentile 
world. He entered upon as spectacular a series of travels 
as history records. His plan was staggering, for he pur- 
~ posed to enter into the heart of the pagan world and plant 
the white flag with the red cross in its midst. His goal 
was definite: he would invade all the larger cities about 
the basin of the Mediterranean Sea and after this would 
win the Roman Empire. Only when one can picture the 
group of Christians—ignored on the one hand, reckoned 
odd, fanatical, or crazy on the other—only then can one 
imagine the majesty of Paul’s strategy. He dared to 
believe Christ could capture the civilization of his day. 

At Lystra paganism was intrenched and the people 
dulled with superstition. Paul entered their midst and 
wrought a cure—a man born lame was made to walk. 
Excitement among the people reached a frenzy. “The 
gods have come down in the likeness of men,” shouted the 
rabble and called Paul one of their gods—Mercury. Paul 
preached a sermon rebuking such nonsense. Fickle 
indeed were these people, for when they learned that 
spectacular miracles were no vital essence of Chris- 
tianity, but, rather, faith, hope, love, and righteous con- 
duct, they readily listened to the slander of some Jews 
who chanced to live there and with mob violence dragged 
Paul without the city to stone him. 

Paul, however, plodded on to Macedonia, and there 
for the first time the gospel entered Europe. At Philippi 
he cured an insane girl so that she could no longer tell 
fortunes. This so angered her masters that they had 
Paul jailed, and he suffered a horrible Roman flogging. 
It was illegal to flog a Roman citizen without trial. Paul 
put fear into his judge for this violation of the law and 
obliged him to come to the prison in person to release 
those so unjustly confined. Paul had courage. 

The stuff Paul was made of would not permit him to 
falter, and he reached Athens. Here his difficulties were 


NEW SPIRIT IN OLD CIVILIZATION Ly. 


different, for he met people who toyed with a stupid 
intellectualism. They were rich, idled about, and mim- 
icked a shallow belief which taught, “Let us eat, drink, 
and be merry, for to-morrow we die.” Insincerity was 
in the air. 


Into such a group Paul wandered. He entered into _ 


conversation with them in the Areopagus and spoke so 
earnestly about the great Christian truths that they in- 
vited him to make a speech. What a splendid address he 
made, telling about the crucifixion of Jesus and the 
triumphant spirit of the resurrection! With eloquence 
born with a conviction of enthusiasm he gave his message. 
Moral earnestness was needed to follow Paul; lacking 
this, the Athenians could not respond. These Athenians 
could not benefit by Christianity because they had false 
pride at the base of the structure of their minds. 

Adventure accompanied Paul wherever he went. Re- 
turning to Asia Minor, he entered the temple dedicated to 
Diana and began to tell about Christ and his ideals for 
life. So successful were his efforts that many people 
forsook her altar and no longer would buy images from 
the jewelers and silversmiths living in Ephesus. Trade 
fell off to such an extent that Demetrius gathered to- 
gether his friends in these crafts to protest against Paul. 
Great confusion ended in a riot. For more than two 
hours the mob surged to and fro about the temple cry- 
ing, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!’ Paul, who was 
never given to exaggeration of his own dangers, later re- 
ferred to this event saying, “After the manner of men, 
I fought with the beasts at Ephesus.” 

At Corinth with its commerce, at Philippi, Berea, 
Lystra, or Ephesus, there was venture and much opposi- 
tion, and in all these places the church grew. Not many 
learned, not many from the ruling class, not many 
wealthy enlisted in the early church. But this made no 
difference to the profound scholar, the regal born Paul 
—he just kept right on. 


18 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


Paul’s letters—To maintain this enthusiasm it was 
needful for Paul to keep watch over the activities of 
Christians gathered here and yonder, and this was ac- 
complished by a correspondence now become classic. 
Paul was exceedingly blunt and frank. Loose conduct 
within the church obliged him to announce that neither 
idolaters, adulterers, revilers, nor extortioners should in- 
herit the kingdom of God. 

He insisted upon social righteousness. Christianity’s 
first fight with the Roman world was just here: it stood 
for purity of life in public and in private. Rome did not 
care much about cleanness of living. Paul insisted that 
Christians should not conform to the customs of the Ro- 
man world, and to many a man he brought the power and 
the will to be clean through Jesus Christ. 

Slavery also was the style, but Paul denounced it. 
Many wealthy Greeks and Romans who heard what Paul 
had to say about the abolition of slavery felt somewhat 
as some rich men do to-day toward those who speak about 
the abolition of child labor; that is, Paul was a dangerous 
innovator. He taught that any man who surrendered his 
life to the leadership of Christ was a “freeman in the 
Lord” though he wore chains. With a never-to-be-for- 
gotten emphasis he asserted that within the Christian 
Church a slave was a brother. In a gracious note to 
Philemon he appealed in behalf of Onesimus, who had 
run away. In the comradeship of Christ Jesus both Phile- 
mon the owner and Onesimus the slave were brothers. 
Although there has been a class consciousness within the 
church, and although many have held aloof from their 
fellows, still the finest spirits have sided with Paul, with 
the result that wherever the church has gone, slavery, class 
distinction, and cliques have been doomed. 

As a result of Paul’s journeys his letters and his teach- 
ing, the Christian faith spread amazingly. The success of 
this gospel of light served, however, to arouse narrow- 
minded bigots in a bitter opposition. Returning from one 


NEWS ELRETCOLN OUD GLIVICIZALION 19 


of his longer journeys, Paul went to Jerusalem to tell 
the leaders of his success. While there he entered the 
Temple and this caused such a furor that he was arrested 
and taken before the Sanhedrin for trial. For his own 
safety he was transported to Czsarea, where he defended 
himself with a brilliant address before Felix. Two years 
he pined in jail, and then Festus succeeded Felix as 
procurator. It was this Festus who called upon Paul to 
give a defense of his religion before King Agrippa. His 
power was so overwhelming and his eloquence so pene- 
trating that the king at first cowered before his onslaught, 
and at the conclusion of this address he burst out, “Thou 
almost persuadest me to be a Christian.” 

Then was Paul returned to Jerusalem for his trial. 
Forty Jews were banded together to kill him at the first 
opportunity and a fair trial under such circumstances was 
out of the question, hence he appealed directly to Cesar 
—and to Cesar was he sent. 

Martyrdom.—lor two or three years he was im- 
prisoned in Rome. To a nature so active and militant 
imprisonment must have been a trial. Never is he guilty 
of bewailing his loneliness. His humility remains, and 
from the trying circumstances of the jail he writes, “Not 
that I have already attained, or am already made perfect; 
but I press on.” Thus this unconquered spirit prepared 
for death. He could not but know that the little sect who 
so dearly loved Jesus Christ had been so prospered as to 
be planted in most of the important centers of the Roman 
Empire. By his downright valor Christianity had broken 
the confines of Galilee and would not sleep until the 
battle for the Roman Empire and for the world itself 
were won. 

As they led this undaunted man out upon the old 
Appian Way to be beheaded, one begins to understand 
how, in the very face of death, his courage failed not, 
and he could utter a challenge that has rung down the 
ages—‘I have fought a good fight, I have finished my 


20 BUILDERS OPV LH E CHU RChs 


course, I have kept the faith.” Wuth such a man as this 
the church could not fail. It was already putting a new 
spirit into an old civilization. 

Paul found the early followers of Jesus confused; but 
before his life ended he persuaded them that right con- 
duct and honest living were essential to the very existence 
of the church. He proved that only as brotherhood is 
real and active can the church live. Above all he pro- 
claimed salvation through the crucified and risen Christ 
and supported Jesus’ assertion that God was truly a heav- 
enly Father by showing that this Father so loved his chil- 
dren as to permit Jesus to die for their sakes. So long as 
these things are the ideals of the church Paul’s spirit will 
be triumphantly in her midst. 


Stupy Topics 


1. What is a “religious experience” such as Paul had? De- 
scribe it. 

2. Why did Paul go away into the desert to meditate? Should 
we do this in our generation? 

3. Why was it necessary for Paul to make a missionary jour- 
ney? Why not wait until the people came to where Paul lived? 
From what you know about Paul, describe what is likely to hap- 
pen to the man who makes any kind of a missionary journey 
to-day. 

4. What is a Christian scholar? Was Paul truly one? 

5. Give some evidences of modern bigotry. How does Chris- 
tianity meet with this? - 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Encyclopedia Britannica, Article on “Paul.” 
H. F. Rall, New Testament History, pp. 169-280. 
The Bible, Book of Acts. 


Gh AP TE RAE, 


ATHANASIUS: THE MAN WHO DEFENDED 
Hise RINGI BDH S 


One of the miracles in history is the fashion in which 
Christianity met the pagan world and became strong. 
Like waves of the surf persecution fell upon the early 
Christians. They were tortured, mutilated, burned, 
thrown to the lions, and still continued to increase. 

For the first two hundred years of its history hatred 
burst forth as steam from a caldron upon the church, 
and to be a Christian meant to risk one’s life. These 
persecutions differed from the early ones in that they be- 
came more systematic in their attempt to crush Chris- 
tianity. Under Emperor Decius (250 a. p.) a terrible 
spirit broke forth, and again under Valerian (257 a. p.). 
The last attempt to wipe out the church was at the time 
of Diocletian. This not only failed but demonstrated the 
church so popular that it could not be blotted out. The 
spirit of Christ pitted itself against the might of the 
Roman Empire, and Christ conquered. The Christian 
movement had cleaved clear through to the heart of Ro- 
man imperialism. It was a great day when Constantine 
the emperor recognized the church and became a Chris- 
tian. 

Many nevertheless had failed, and under the horrible 
pressure of Roman hatred had denied Christ. They could 
not be loyal to an unpopular cause. When the emperor 
himself turned Christian they wanted to return to the 
church and be on the winning side. So these faithless 
Christians became a real problem. They are always a 
real problem. 

The division within the ranks of Christians.—While 
there was a common enemy the Christians kept together, 

21 


22 BUILDERS OF :THE ‘CHURCH 


yet as soon as this partial victory had been won a bitter 
dispute arose. It was concerning who Jesus Christ really 
was and what kind of a God we really had. Some peo- 
ple called “Gnostics” said God was far off, and men could 
not have common friendship with him. Other things of 
a theological nature were also argued about. The second 
dispute was about Jesus—whether he was divine or not. 
A priest, Arius, taught the Gnostic point of view: that 
God was exalted, and men never could really come very 
close to him. 

At first glance it would appear to make little difference 
whether Arius was right or not; still, on close observa- 
tion, it will be seen that a great deal would depend upon 
this. If God were far away, then he could not be a loving 
heavenly Father, and without this heavenly Father Chris- 
. tianity could not stand the storms beating upon it. Other 
religions had a far-off god, but people became Chris- 
tians because they could find God near at hand as a 
friend. With a far-away God Christianity would lose her 
compelling power. We would have no church to-day 
unless we had decided that God was near at hand, for it 
is the consciousness of God close to every person that has 
made Christianity popular. 

Unity of empire was the dream of Constantine, and 
this he saw threatened by the dispute within the church. 
To settle these differences he called a council in Nicexa, 
near the capital city of Constantinople. With more than 
three hundred delegates present, it was a gorgeous 
spectacle, filled with pomp and ceremony. The emperor 
presided, and the imperial treasury bore the expense. 
Golden-haired men from Gaul, black-haired men from 
Italy, Oriental-featured faces from Antioch, olive-skinned 
bishops from Ethiopia, and refined Greeks, all were 
present. The upshot of the whole matter was a creed 
which, under threat of banishment by the emperor, all 
bishops save two signed, and the question about right 
ideas of God was once and for all settled! 


DEFENDING PRINCIPLES 23 


Athanasius made bishop.—A young priest working 
under Bishop Alexander, named Athanasius, was present 
at this council. Soon after returning home Bishop Alex- 
ander of Alexandria was smitten, and while dying called 
for Athanasius. “You think to escape, but it cannot be,” 
said the dying man, and he passed away. No sooner had 
the news passed about that Alexander was dead than a 
throng met and the name of Athanasius was upon every 
lip. “We will have Athanasius for our bishop,” cried the 
people, and with applause this young man, at the age of 
thirty, was chosen Bishop of Alexandria. 

No sooner had Athanasius entered upon his new duties 
than his troubles began, for the faction supporting Arius, 
through a certain Bishop Eurelius, demanded that he be 
readmitted to the church, threatening dire consequences ii 
this order were not fulfilled. The emperor himself lent 
his support to the “request.” Athanasius, newly made a 
bishop, thirty years of age, must have been thrown into 
consternation. But the Council of Niczea had spoken. It 
was not a matter of expediency and he would not com- 
promise. 

Opposition. stiffened. Athanasius was accused of 
illegally collecting taxes from Egypt. His enemies stated 
that he presented a purse of gold to Philimenus, a rebel 
against the government, and finally Athanasius was held 
responsible for sending a priest into the home of Ischyras, 
an unordained layman administering sacrament to his 
own household. So violent was the attack of this priest 
that the chalice was knocked from the hand of Ischyras. 
These reproaches upon Athanasius caused the emperor to 
summon him to court, where the falsity of the whole 
proceeding was demonstrated and Athanasius was called 
a “man of God” by the emperor. 

Further opposition.—Afterward, in Tyre, he was ac- 
cused of murdering Arsenius. Rising to defend himself, 
he asked if any knew Arsenius. Many said they knew 
Arsenius well. To the confusion of his enemies, 


24 BUIEDERS TOE EEL Grin Gr 


Athanasius bade a monk seated beside him to remove his 
cowl and it was none other than Arsenius himself! So 
unjust, however, were his enemies, that the cry was 
raised: “Athanasius has bewitched us. Athanasius has 
bewitched us.” The ruse worked, and he was obliged 
to flee for his life. 

Evil opposition can undo the bravest man if he fights 
alone. Athanasius was summoned to appear again before 
Constantine, and received his sentence of banishment to 
Trier in Germany in 335 A. p. The emperor appointed 
no successor. So the courageous Athanasius went out 
upon his first exile. But Lynn Harold Hough fittingly 
reminds us that it is “better to be an exile in Gaul than a 
false bishop seated in full power at Alexandria.’ 

The return to Alexandria and further exile—The 
stuff of which men are made is nowhere more in evidence 
than in their conduct under adversity. Living far from 
home, longing for his church in the big city of Alex- 
andria, it is easy to picture the hardship of this active 
warrior of Christ. Lesser men would have made a 
mental evasion and returned to their former honors with 
glory. Not so with Athanasius. He fulfilled his sen- 
tence, and when he returned to Alexandria took not the 
slightest revenge upon his opponents. 

Gregory the false bishop.—Our hero, however, was 
gaining in popularity. Because of his statesmanlike mind, 
his moderation in conduct, not only Christians but Jews 
and pagans also held him in high esteem. The enemies 
of Athanasius continued to inflame the new emperor 
against him so that he was banished for a second time to 
Rome and a certain Gregory was appointed to Alex- 
andria. What a brute this man was! His first act was 
to have thirty-four Christians scourged, then many Chris- 
tians were jailed on Easter day—and he a Christian 
bishop! Athanasius’ heart bled as he heard of all this in 


1 Athanasius: The Hero, p. 74. 


DEFENDING PRINCIPLES 25 


his exile. His dear people persecuted by a false bishop, 
and he could do nothing. Again a political change at the 
capital caused the Council of Sardica to vindicate him, 
and he returned to Alexandria. 

The welcome to Alexandria.—And when the people 
heard he was coming they hurled the brutish Gregory 
from his throne, and left the gates of the city to meet 
Athanasius. Miles and miles away from the city they 
greeted him. With loud hurrahs and tears they bade 
him welcome. Like some victorious general he made his 
triumphant entry into his beloved city. Why was it that 
a whole city went out to greet one man after this fashion? 
A Christian had not flinched. 

General Syrianus invades the church.—Roman poli- 
tics were in a dreadful mess, the empire was beginning 
to break down. A bigot, Constantius, was on the throne 
and had undertaken the self-imposed task of dictating the 
faith of the world. Athanasius had achieved a place of 
great power, and the emperor feared to go against so 
powerful a bishop in the open, and adopted a sneak-thief 
program. 

On February 8, 356 a. p., General Syrianus with five 
thousand men surrounded the church of Saint Theonas, 
in which Athanasius was conducting worship. When 
news came of the possible danger, this valiant son of the 
church mounted his throne and continued the service by 
reading Psalm 130. The bishop read: “Out of the depths 
have I cried unto thee, O Lord,’ and the people re- 
sponded, “Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be atten- 
tive to the voice of my prayer.” 

Even while the magnificent piece was being read the 
hammering was heard upon the doors, which were finally 
broken down. There was mad confusion—the roar of 
the centurions, the flying of arrows, the clanging of 
armor and the flash of brandished swords in the dim glow 
of the temple lights. The shoutings of the people were 
mingled with the groanings of agony from those being 


26 BUILDERS: OF THE GHURGE 


trampled to death. The bishop’s face was white—not 
from fear, but for the broken heart he carried, and 
when he could do no more for those he loved, he fled for 
his very life and went into hiding. 

For six years they hunted his life in the desert of 
Egypt. A price was set on his head. Athanasius fled 
from one humble monastery to another. Though 
harassed on every side, he wrote books and letters which 
were like battle flags to those of his followers. And all 
of this took place because a man defended a creed which 
insisted that Christ was divine and that God was near to 
every child and man. 

Emperor Julian and other banishments.—-But soon 
a pagan disgusted with the wrangling of Christians was 
on the throne, and pardoned all who were banished by the 
previous emperor. Pagan Julian permitted Athanasius 
to return home. His troubles were not over, for he was 
exiled three times more. When the summons came the 
next time he said, “Be of good cheer; it is but a cloud and 
will soon pass.’ On his return from his last exile, a 
man of seventy, broken with the hardships of five exiles, 
he was escorted to the church of Dionysius in Alexandria 
by a Roman official, the notary Basidas. He lived seven 
years longer. 

The character of Athanasius.—Now, it is well to 
note that throughout all these troubles Athanasius did 
not become hardened. When his opponent Arius went 
into exile his writings were burned, and when he died 
Athanasius spoke very gently of him. He did not wax 
revengeful. Indeed, he wrote a book entitled De Synodis, 
in which he offered friendship to his enemies and asked 
that there be no division within the church over the mean- 
ing of mere words. 

Tremendous prestige came to this man who had so 
suffered. Athanasius, however, could stand upon a high 
summit without becoming dizzy. He did not lose his 
humility. After his last return from exile, he excom- 


DEFENDING PRINCIPLES ay 


municated the governor of Numidia from the church 
because of immoral conduct. ‘Though friends urged him 
o “play safe,” since this governor had power, he heeded 
them not, did his duty, published the facts, awaited the 
consequences. He lived to see a great church named 
after him. In his Festal Letter of 370 a. p. he wrote: 
“For we have here no abiding city, but we seek that 
which is to come.” In the beautiful month of May came 
the end, and he who had marched breast forward, who 
had braved storm, who had been true to the truth, fell 
asleep. The city of Alexandria was in mourning, it was 
bereft of a friend. Those who scorned him lived to 
honor him. 

How Athanasius helps form our ideals.—The 
church lives because of men like Athanasius. The spirit 
of Christ expressed itself in him. He taught that Jesus 
was divine and God near. We may take these truths for 
granted, however, because Athanasius and his friends 
fought for them. Civilization, the ideals of brotherhood, 
cooperative efforts for a better world are made possible 
because Athanasius paid his price and won. It is the 
knowledge that God is just outside the door of each man’s 
heart, ready to enter, that thrills him, and urges him to 
his noblest. Athanasius helped make that knowledge real 
and vivid. In this belief he lived, and for it he died. 


Stupy Topics 


1. Was the persecution of the early Christians a help or a 
hindrance to the spread of Christianity? Justify your answer. 

2. By means of illustrations from other periods of the world’s 
history show how persecution has aah to strengthen rather 
than wipe out worthy causes. 

3. What were the issues at stake at the Council of Nicza and 
how were they met? 

4. Read the creed adopted at the Council of Nicea. In your 
judgment, does it embody or fail to embody the essential truths 
and principles of living as taught and lived by Jesus? Justify 
your answer. 

5. Show how controversies over doctrine and beliefs may be 


28 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


an advantage or a disadvantage to the progress of Christianity. 
6. Who was Athanasius? Outline the principal opposing 
forces with which he had to contend and show how he met them. 
7. In what ways may Athanasius be called a “Builder of the 
Church” ? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Hough, Lynn Harold—Athanasius: The Hero. 
Walker, Williston—Great Men of the Christian Church, Chap- 
ter III. University of Chicago Press. 


EUS heb LT 


AUGUSTINE: THE MAN WHO FOUGHT 
SUPERS DITION BAND) DESTATER 


SINCE the days of Athanasius changes were taking 
place in the church and the world. Beginning with Con- 
stantine persecution of Christians ceased, but other evils 
came. The church became lax in her standards, mem- 
bership was easy, corruption stalked in the Holy of holies, 
the pagans charged that enormous vice was protected by 
the church. Secularity, greed, and pride grew as a re- 
sult of imperial patronage, and the differences of opin- 
ion, with resulting strife, weakened the entire movement. 

The need of the hour was for a man who could so im- 
press the truth that harmony would come, and who 
would bring a gigantic vision of the city of God which 
depended not upon imperial power. A spirit of con- 
fidence in truth and eventual success of the church was. 
needed, and this came in the person of a prophet, 
Augustine. 

Boyhood.—On November 13, 354 A. D., in the little 
town of Thagaste on the northern coast of Africa was 
born Aurelius Augustinus into the home of a merchant 
named Patricius, an unlovely, poor freedman with poor 
tastes. But Monica, the mother of Augustine, was in 
this home, and that made all the difference in the world. 
Little is known of this boy’s life save that he paid in- 
adequate attention to his studies and was thrashed 
severely by his teachers. Neighbors thought him rather 
wild and predicted a future of worthlessness. When 
one remembers what a shameless brute Patricius, his 
father, was, and how shamelessly he disregarded his mar- 
riage vow, it is easier to understand why Augustine went 
wild, and had scant use for Christianity. 


29 


30 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


Augustine’s low ideals ——Much against his mother’s 
will he took up fellowship with the enemies of Chris- 
tianity—the followers of Mani. He lived with a concu- 
bine of low birth, and became the father of a son named 
Adeodatus—which means “Given by God.” Augustine 
grew up in a life of shameless immorality, lacking in 
poise and self-control. He indulged in all manner of 
riotous living, so that he quite broke his mother’s heart 
and became heartily ashamed of himself. Early he left 
his home town and went to Carthage to school, and after 
finishing his course returned to Thagaste as a school- 
teacher. While teaching here a very intimate friend 
died, and Augustine showed how deep a misery lay buried 
in his heart. 

He turned toward Rome at the age of twenty-nine. 
His mother, knowing the debauchery of the imperial city, 
urged that he would not leave home. So low had 
Augustine sunk, however, that he deceived his mother 
and sneaked off in a boat, sailing in the dead of night for — 
Rome. In this city affairs were in a sorry plight. Lewd 
plays, the races, bloody scenes at the public games, filth 
in worship, vice in the temples, prostitution on every 
hand—this rather than sober living and honest toil was 
the picture of Roman life. There was plenty of religion 
such as it was. Manicheism flourished mightily. 
Mithraism, under the patronage of the Emperor Julian, 
was a great sect, while paganism was far from dead. Its 
many gods touched life at all points. After three hun- 
dred years of Christianity, Christian emperors and 
martyrs’ blood, this was the squalor of Rome! Plenty of 
religion was there, but the bottom had dropped out of 
the moral life. 

Mani, the religious teacher.—In the face of such 
events Augustine had turned to Manicheism for help. 
The founder of this cult was a blameless character who — 
claimed to be the ‘‘Paraclete,” and who after forty years 
of travel through India, China, and Turkestan, was cru- 


SUPERSTITION AND DESPAIR 31 


cified by the Persians in 376 a. p. This teacher mimicked 
Jesus and gathered about himself twelve disciples. In 
spirit there was a vast gulf between his teaching and that 
of the Man of Galilee. Christianity taught that God saved 
a man without any delay. Mani taught that salvation could 
not come except by a strict ceremonial and a life of the 
strictest asceticism. This cult never attacked wickedness 
in the world and lived as though no evil were to be 
found. The morals of the nobility it left alone and hence 
became exceedingly popular. Mingled with their moral 
teachings was much nonsense and superstition, as may 
be illustrated by the fantastic belief that the waxing and 
the waning of the moon was caused by the receiving of 
souls at death. 

To this cult Augustine turned in vain for help. He 
was enslaved to his passions and sought release from 
moral bondage. Mani offered such serfs little aid. Hence 
Augustine later turned from this cult and became its 
staunchest enemy. He accused the Manichzans as vaunt- 
ing a courage and a morality they did not possess. He 


challenged Bishop Fortunatus, of the Manichzans, to a — 


public debate, which actually took place just outside of 
Hippo. A large crowd of people was present to hear the 
discourse. But so keen was the mind of Augustine that 
Fortunatus was confused, the crowd jeered, and he re- 
tired, never more to have power in Hippo. 

The great fight.—But we must go back to the time 
when Augustine was studying in Rome. Here his reputa- 
tion became so widely known that he was appointed royal 
professor in the University of Milan. Hearing of the ap- 
pointment, many Manichzan and Christian students from 
Thagaste, Carthage, and Rome followed their teacher to 
Milan. A great tribute to the inspiration of Augustine is 
this going to Milan on the part of the former pupils. 

Soon Monica came, and, in a fashion quite incon- 
sistent with Christian ethics, Augustine and she planned 
to dismiss his concubine and chose a Roman maiden for 


32 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


his future wife. Since this slip of a girl was still under 
the marrying age, he was obliged to wait two years until 
his wedding—which time he spent in worse profligacy 
than ever. Augustine found himself living upon a high 
plane of life intellectually and down in a low, sordid 
marsh morally; but, above all, he was forever unhappy. 
He knew his faults—he knew the truth. He could not 
follow the light, and the more he struggled the lower 
he sank. A great fight was on: Augustine determined to 
be a man, to know the truth, to accomplish his destiny 
and achieve a character. He wanted to be what he had 
not the power to become. 

The influence of a great teacher.—At this juncture 
Augustine met the majestic bishop of Milan—Ambrose. 
This man ranked high in Rome but had left the army to 
fight for Christianity. He was a mighty warrior and 
unhesitatingly took up arms with the emperor in behalf 
of the faith. Asa church leader he was progressive. He 
introduced music into the church, and wrote hymns which 
are sung to-day. As a superb preacher he mounted to 
such heights that his people met God in each of his ser- 
. mons. His fame was sure throughout Italy. Ambrose 
aroused Augustine to assert his divine right to righteous- 
ness. 

The climax came one day as Augustine was seated in 
the open hall of his house. So wretched was he that he 
hurriedly left the room so that his friends would not 
see his tears. Going into the garden, he flung himself 
under a fig tree and wept bitterly. An inner voice bade 
him enter the house and take up and read his Bible. Re- 
entering the hall, he opened the Bible and his eyes 


~™ lighted upon the passage which read: “Not in rioting 


and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not 
in strife and envying: but put ye on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and make not provisions for the flesh, to fulfill ~ 
the lusts hereof.” He could read no further. Instantly 
the gloom vanished and the light of a great security came 


SUPERSTITION AND DESPAIR 33 


into his life. What neither Mani, Plato, nor Roman 
philosophy could do, Christianity had accomplished; the 
Spirit of Jesus Christ gave Augustine an inward peace 
and an outward strength to fight for the mastery of his 
own destiny. This was the beginning of a process 
whereby he became a loyal follower of Jesus. 

For years Monica, the mother of Augustine, had been 
praying he might become a Christian. What joy must < 
have been hers when her son rushed into her presence 
announcing his conversion to Christianity! Her joy was 
too deep for words and the tears which fell alone showed 
the profoundness of her happiness. 

Augustine resigned his professorship, retired to a beau- 
tiful villa up among the mountains of northern Italy, 
studied to prepare himself to be a fit member of the 
Christian Church, and on Easter of 387 a. p. he was bap- 
tized in the Cathedral of Milan. 

The return to Africa—Immediately he planned to re- 
turn to Africa and defend Christianity. Leisurely his 
party, including his mother, journeyed toward Ostia. 
Upon arriving at Ostia, Monica fell seriously ill. She had . 
hoped to be able to return to Africa, to be laid to rest 
beside her husband, but as she grew weaker she saw the 
hopelessness of this plan and said, “Nothing is far from 
God, nor need I fear lest he should be ignorant at the end 
of the world of the place where he is to raise me up.” A 
few days later she was gone, and Augustine, suffering 
deep grief, laid her away with the realization that he 
had been blessed with one of the most wonderful mothers 
the world had ever known. What gladness must have 
been his to feel that his mother had known him to be a 
Christian ere she died! 

Augustine’s troubles were not yet over, for his son 
Adeodatus, who ever had been precocious and brilliant- 
minded, died. Augustine profoundly loved his son, 
who was very attractive. This great loss proved a turn- 
ing point in the career of Augustine and he quickly threw 


34 BUIDDERS OR rie Ch iG Et 


himself into the work of establishing a monastery in 
Thagaste. He sold all his private property and endowed 
this institution. Into this group came slaves, tillers of 
the soil and lowly artisans, while the manner of life they 
lived became known as the Rule of Saint Augustine. No 
fanaticism of any kind was permitted, and all members 
of the monastery were urged to devote their time earnestly 
to study, to prayer, and to purity of life. 

The bishop of Hippo.—This man so profoundly 
moved by the Spirit of Christ in Milan could not remain 
in obscurity. His success came to the attention of the 
venerable Bishop Valerius, who resided at Hippo. When 
Augustine accepted an invitation of the bishop to attend 
his church and preach, there was great confusion after 
the service and the popular cry went up for Augustine 
to become a presbyter and assist the aged bishop. Augus- 
tine accepted this call. Soon the aged bishop died and 
with popular acclaim Augustine was elected Bishop of 
Hippo, at the age of thirty-nine. The church of Hippo 
was made up largely of craftsmen, fishermen, gardeners, 
and the like. None of the aristocracy gave it very much 
allegiance. 

What kind of man was this newly elected bishop? He 
was very thin and slight of build; in fact, he once had 
tuberculosis and never fully recovered. He wore the 
plainest of raiment and lived mostly on herbs and vege- 
tables. He allowed himself little wine and no meat, 
thinking to save this for the sick. He cared so much 
about people as to be careless about church property. He 
was always courteous, generous toward his enemies, and 
stanch to defend his friends. Upon the surface of his 
dining table was carved the sentence, “This is not the 
place for carping critics,” and all unkind remarks were 
swept from his table board in hot wrath. 

The preaching of Augustine was not always high in 
quality. His parishioners complained. But when a crisis 
had to be met, this man indeed became as a prophet of 


SUPERSTITION AND DESPAIR 35 


the Lord and indicted the ungodly. There was in Cesarea 
Mauritania an old blood feud called the “Caterva.” Once 
each year the people of this town came together and 
much fighting, and even killing, took place among the 
people. Many Christians preached against this condition, 
but in vain. Augustine was sent for, and he preached 
to the people. His eyes flashed; his voice, laden with the 
truth of God, pierced the very hearts of the people. As 
the sermon swept along, these men and women were 
moved first to applause, and then the entire throng was 
melted to tears. Commenting upon the event after a 
lapse of eight years, Augustine noted that the feud had 
never been renewed. 

The fame of this preacher spread and rich men en- 
gaged in big business hastened to present gifts for his 
church. Orphans and widows were intrusted to his care. 
Officers of the empire came to him for advice and his 
prestige extended to Rome. The man who saw God in 
Milan was gaining a tremendous influence in the empire. 

Defending the church.—Augustine’s great contribu- 
tion to history is his defense of the church. A certain 
sect called the Donatists, who were people of unblemished 
character, had an argument with the church of a hundred 
years’ standing. The Donatists encouraged the spirit of 
worshiping martyrs, of praying at the tombs, of having 
revels in imitation of the Romans, on great saints’ days, 
and believed in visions and miracles. Fanatical Dona- 
tists called “Circumcellians,” allied to modern tramps and 
hobos, went about after dark and aroused slaves against 
masters. Augustine preached against this sect in a ser- 
mon inelegantly entitled “Dogs and Swine.” Christians 
are under a debt of gratitude to Augustine for his courage 
in attacking superstition. ‘The battle has not yet been 
wholly won. But we are safe in saying that since the 
time of Augustine superstition has never been for long 
befriended by Christians. 

The city of God.—Past inner moral decay was bring- 


mee 


36 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


ing its results. The Goths, Huns, and Vandals were look- 
ing toward the granaries in Numidia, or to treasure of 
the imperial city itself. For years Emperor Honorius 
paid a yearly ransom to Alaric and his tribe, but the in- 
evitable finally came, and this powerful barbarian invaded 
Rome and for six days sacked and ravaged to his heart’s 
content. The Christian buildings were spared. 

With the fall of Rome many insisted that the gods had 
been so long outraged that their protection was with- 
drawn. Under the pretense of bringing peace the Chris- 
tians had caused these people to forsake the gods and 
therefore were the parties responsible for bringing this 
peril. Bitter animosity against the Christians was extant 
over the empire. Indeed, Christians themselves were 
confused and in doubt as this great horde of barbarians 
fell upon Rome, as a bolt of lightning from heaven. 

A defense of Christianity was needed, and Augustine 
gave it in his masterpiece, The City of God. For thirteen 
years he toiled at this monumental work. He insisted 
that an earthly city should not be expected to last for- 
ever, but only the everlasting City of God whose citizens 


| were the elect. This City of God was greater than 


empires, and whether empires stood or fell, the eternal 
city abode forever. 

So firmly did these ideas lay hold upon the minds of 
the people that the papacy was made possible, an in- 
superable barrier was placed before Mohammedanism in 
a later generation, and men learned once and for all that 
the Church of God—the concrete expression of the 
Spirit of Christ—was ever greater than empire itself. 
From Augustine to the present the disasters and defeats 
to kings and empires have never shaken the faith of 
Christians—they know the City of God is upon such 
foundations as to endure for all time. 

Siege of Hippo.—This breakdown of the empire soon 
made itself felt in Africa, and the Vandal chief Genseric 
invaded Africa and in a brief space laid siege to the city 


SUPERSTITION AND DESPAIR 37 


of Hippo. Although the enemy were without, this aged 
bishop of seventy-six years preached daily to the 
populace. For months the siege dragged along and 
Augustine fell ill with his last sickness. The world was 
falling in ruins and he could hear the crash of its 
tumbling masonry. But he did not live to see the end of 
it all, for August 28, 430 A. p., he died as he had lived— 
in full possession of his mind. 

Later on Hippo was captured. A new day was ushered 
in. But the Christians had no fear, since Augustine had 
made them to see that there was a mighty truth behind the 
figure of speech which declared of “The New Jerusalem 
coming down from God out of heaven.” 


Srupy Topics 


1. Contrast the status of the Christian Church in the first 
Christian century with the church of the fourth century. Ac- 
count for the numerical increase and for the decline of spir- 
itual power and fervor. 

2. Outline the principal stages in Augustine’s fight for char- 
acter, indicating the factors in his life and surroundings that 
made it difficult for him to live a moral life. 

3. What forces played upon the life of Augustine that finally 
helped him to become a Christian ? 

4. Show the influence of Augustine’s early home training upon 
his later life. 

5. What contributions did Augustine make to the building of 
the church? 

6. Outline Augustine’s ideal for the “City of God.” Contrast 
it with our modern ideal of the kingdom of God. 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Osmum, G. W.—Augustine: The Thinker. 
Augustine—Confessions. 





THE EXPANSION OF CHRISTIANITY 





GA PETAL 
HILDEBRAND THE IMPERIALIST 


THE airship of time travels quickly, and we have little 
opportunity to see what is taking place upon this old 
world of ours, so fast do events move. After the death 
of Augustine the Christian movement continued to grow, 
especially the church at Rome, which, located in the heart 
of the empire, was rated among the heaviest churches 
giving to benevolences, and in number of members was 
the largest—all of which gave it great prominence. As 
early as 380 Emperor Theodosius in an edict ordered all 
to accept the faith given by Peter to the church at Rome. 
Valentinian recognized the Bishop of Rome as a Pope 
with power over all other bishops, and when the imperial 
control in the person of the emperor moved to Constanti- 
nople the Bishop of Rome had even greater chance to 
exercise his strength. 

Then, too, the church of Rome had benefited by the 
Germanic invasion, such as that of Alaric. There was 
opened up an unprecedented missionary opportunity 
which this church was not slow to improve, and in 576 
it sent Bishop Augustine as a missionary to England, 
while in 719 Boniface went with the evangel to the Ger- 
mans. The might of this church so grew that finally 
Pope Nicholas I was able to reverse the procedure of the 
ages and announce to the emperor at Constantinople that 
no appeal could be made from the authority of the Church 
of Rome, bluntly asserted the new dicta that the privileges 
of Rome were eternal, derived from no council but 
granted directly from God himself. And with a pomp in 
strange contrast to that pristine simplicity of the brave 
Athanasius or bold Augustine, this Pope was crowned 


AI 


42 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


with the tiara, lived in the gorgeous Lateran Palace, 
wore a diadem and a purple cloak, carried a scepter, and 
was attended by a retinue of horsemen, while the other 
clergy rode on white horses and received honors generally 
granted the ancient patricians. The papacy became a 
distinct institution and advanced such astounding claims 
as would have made the early martyrs turn over in their 
graves. This development, however, did not reach its 
high-water mark until about five hundred years after 
the death of Augustine. 

Early days of Hildebrand.—In 1018 at a little town 
called Saona lying in a secluded spot of Italy was born 
a lad named Hildebrand, which name means “burning 
flame.” His father was poor and a carpenter. His home 
life must have been very humble. When he had out- 
grown the limits of the village school his parents sent 
him to the monastery of Saint Mary in Rome, where the 
Abbot Odilo of Cluny presided, and the influence of 
the teaching of Cluny held sway. 

The state of Christianity in Hildebrand’s time.— 
Superstition was on every hand. Magic incantations 
took place within the church and many priests passed for 
magicians. An emaciated body counted for more than 
a stalwart soul. Crime abounded, with hosts of robberies 
in and about Rome. 

Into such a church as this did Hildebrand enter, and 
so earnest were his efforts that soon he rose to a place 
of command. The Popes at this time made a sorry 
spectacle. Political bitterness, moral looseness char- 
acterized the papacy. In the midst of such spiritual chaos 
a man of moral fiber would be sure to make himself 
felt. Five Popes were elected during the early life of 
Hildebrand, and of this number four were chosen by him. 
At last Pope Alexander II died, and while Hildebrand 
was attending the funeral in Saint John’s Church of the 
Lateran, on April 22, 1070, so great was his popularity 
that the crowd burst out: “Hildebrand! Hildebrand 


we) eee a a ain 


IMPERIALISM 43 


for Pope! Saint Peter has chosen Hildebrard!” Hugh 
the White, a bosom friend of Hiuldebrand’s, addressed 
the assembly, and the outcome was the selection of Hilde- 
brand. The mob bore him to the Church of Saint Pietro, 
in Vinculo, put upon him a papal robe of scarlet, the 
miter of two golden circlets upon his head—the crown 
royal bestowed by God and the crown imperial given at 
the hand of Peter—and “unwilling and sad” led him to 
the apostolic throne. What kind of a man was this 
Pope? Small and scant of stature, described by one who 
was present as “insignificant in appearance,’ but withal 
of tremendous talent and gigantic will power. 

Cluny and the reforms regarding simony and im- 
morality.—Hildebrand in his boyhood attended a school 
supervised by the Order of Cluny. These monks were 
among the purest spirits of their day, for in their midst 
began the work intended to rid the church of its moral 
filth. As early as gio a. p. Cluny had insisted that the 
church must be reformed and that emperors should never 
more control the Christian movement. It insisted that 
only men of character should be elected to the papacy. 
This order struggled for two distinct attainments: it 
insisted that the church should be forever rid of that 
colossal spoils system known as “simony” whereby priests 
bought with money their offices in the church. The life 
of the priesthood was to be cleansed and marriage for- 
bidden. The reform movement had just begun as Hilde- 
brand came on to the scenes, and the new Pope had been 
trained to believe heartily in the reform. This he did, 
and soon became one of the leaders. 

Hildebrand would not straddle a moral issue. 
Simony was wrong, therefore it must be plucked out of 
the church root and branch. Simony was a form of 
ecclesiastical graft whereby a man bought an office in the 
church and regardless of his mental or spiritual quali- 
fication to fill it. He who had most money had the high- 
est office. A child of five years of age was made Arch- 


44 BUILDERS|OR/ THEY CHUR GE 


bishop of Rheims, the see of Narbonne was bought for 
another youngster at the age of ten; the practice was 
transforming bishops into feudal barons, and they lived 
in castles and ruled pretty much as they liked, while 
men who should have been ministering to the church in 
some religious capacity were serving governors, princes, 
and acting as ministers of state. It was possible for 
adventurers, court buffoons, half-witted offspring of the 
royalty to become lofty prelates, and the church openly 
fixed the price for its offices. Every layman could say, 
“Every cleric has his price.” 

Into this religious squalor Hildebrand threw himself 
with a will. The Synod of Rome was called in 1074, 
and declared every prelate who had purchased any church 
office should immediately give it up and that sacraments 
administered by any priest who had bought his office were 
illegal. 

Immorality was as vigorously attacked. Priests were 
told to leave their wives or concubines or else leave the 
church. This militant Pope would have the church 
cleansed from this diabolical wickedness, and plunged — 
ahead into the fray. 

Opposition to reforms.—When the Archbishops of 
Rouen and Mainz read the papal decrees the populace 
openly rebelled. Lombard prelates living freely with 
their women were in no haste to take up the monastic 
life, and the people of Milan openly defied the Pope. 
Even Lanfranc in England did not consider at first these 
radical principles of reform. Hildebrand was not stopped 
by any failures. He summoned those who were true to 
his side and in the darkest hour challenged Christians 
with the exhortation, “Fear not; despair not; extinguish 
simony and enforce celibacy, and God will uphold you.” 

Cencius the brigand seizes Hildebrand.—Bishop 
Guibert, who desired no such reforms, stooped to hiring 
a brigand named Cencius, who was to do away with the 
valiant Pope. It seemed like a repetition of the breaking 


IMPERIALISM 45 


into the church so many years before to secure Atha- 
nasius. On Christmas Eve Hildebrand was singing mass 
in the Chapel of the Manger in the Santa Maria Mag- 
giore. In the midst of the rite there sounded the clash 
of.arms and the hoarse cries of the marching band of 
rufhans. Cencius seized the Pope at the altar and dragged 
him brutally without. The church was stripped of its 
vestments and jewels. Clad only in his altar clothes 
Hildebrand was bound to a horse and carried off to the 
castle of Cencius. 

Alarm bells were rung, companies patrolled the streets 
with lighted torches, the gates were barred by the sol- 
diers, excited and angered people thronged the public 
places until daylight, and when it was learned where the 
pontiff was, so great was the fury of the mob as it threw 
itself against the stronghold of the freebooter that the 
captor was thrown into abject terror. The tables were 
turned. Cencius, fearing his own life, begged piteously 
for forgiveness. The Pope granted it, was liberated and 
led triumphantly back to Santa Maria, where he finished 
his mass. 

The divine right of Popes.—A stiffer fight was yet 
to be witnessed, for Hildebrand declared that each prince 
and king was subject to the power of the church, which 
had been committed to it from the days of Saint Peter. 
He declared that the church had the right to confirm 
every king in his domain and that without confirmation 
of the Pope no king legitimately could hold power. There 
can be no doubt but that Hildebrand was sincere in this. 
It was high time the church ceased to lick the boots of 
every princeling in order to gain his good will. The tables 
were to be turned. The very sincerity of the Pope’s 
intention meant trouble. 

Henry IV of Germany was the first to resent this claim 
of the papacy. At first he and the Pope were the best of 
friends. A cause of friction was the vacancy in the 
Archbishopric of Milan. Who should fill this empty 


46 BUILDERSOR RTH ENGR ERG 


position, Henry IV or Hildebrand? Both claimed the 
authority. So the break came and the Pope excommuni- 
cated Henry IV and issued a proclamation stating that 
his subjects were no longer bound by their oaths of 
allegiance. The papacy could and did release them from 
all promises. In 1077 the Council of Tribus met and 
declared that the king was deposed. There was a rule 
among the German nobility which declared that no king 
can rule more than one year after excommunication from 
the church, so Henry was advised to hurry up, get back 
into the church and be in good standing. 

Henry was angered beyond measure and called the 
Pope a “false monk,” who acquired his position by fraud, 
and this note concluded: “Leave the apostolic throne 
which thou hast usurped. Let another take the chair of 
Saint Peter, who will not preach violence, but the sound 
doctrine of the holy gospel. I, Henry, by the grace of 
God, king, with all the bishops of my realm, say unto 
thee, ‘Step down; step down; thou eternally damned.’ ”’ 
Furthermore Henry sent a bold herald, a priest of Parma 
named Roland, who entered the council meeting in the 
Lateran and denied the claims of the Pope in severe 
words, called him bad names, and concluded his address 
by calling Hildebrand a “ravening wolf.” Fury raged in 
the synod greater than that against Cencius, and swords 
were drawn against the herald so that the Pope was 
obliged to shield the messenger with his own body. 
Hildebrand intended that no Pope ever again should be 
made and unmade at the whims of emperors. He stood 
his ground. 

Canossa.—Things fared badly with Henry. The Pope 
kept up a thorough propaganda against him in the form 
of a multitude of letters, and finally he was obliged to 
seek peace with the Pope. In the middle of a bitter 
winter he began his journey to Italy. The passes over 
the Alps were frozen. Only at a great risk could the 
journey be made. But Henry was desperate. He took 


IMPERIALISM 47 


his life in his hands, crossed the Alps, heard that the 
Pope was resting in the stronghold of Canossa, and 
hitherward wended his way. Dressed as a penitent, 
garbed in black, barefooted, he stood in the slush and 
snow for three long days in succession, outside the castle 
gate, asking the Pope to come out and forgive. Hilde- 
brand would not budge. Some said the king would die 
of exposure; others intimated that he might go away in 
even greater wrath and do the papacy more harm. The 
Pope was obdurate, and not until eventide of the third 
cold day did he admit the emperor to be prostrated before 
him on bended knee asking forgiveness—all of which 
Hildebrand speedily granted. But the tables were turned. 
No longer did suppliant churchmen and loyal Chris- 
tians go about prostrating themselves before unfriendly 
kings and princes in fear of their very lives. The church 
had won, and now the emperors did the bowing and the 
bending. January 28, 1077, marks the high-water mark 
for the claims of the papacy. The emperor gave physical 
obeisance for the first and last time, and although the 
church continued her claims, they were forever being 
disputed. 

Hildebrand in exile.—For over sixty years the Pope 
had fought nobles and emperors in an unpopular cause, 
and now might he well have reason to be wearied. Un- 
defeated, he kept up his work of disciplining the royalty. 
Bishop Lanfranc gave way to the haughty Norman, 
William the Conqueror, in England; but not Hildebrand. 
Hear him as he says to William: “Now God has taken 
thee, like a wretched serf of sin, to make of thee freely a 
most powerful king. Think and strive therefore, to 
glorify the almighty Jesus, to whom thou owest all thou 
art.” Where the fire was hottest there was he. To a 
rebellious noble he wrote, “If you attempt to contravene 
our order, know, and hold certain, that we will draw 
against you the sword of the blessed Peter, and punish 
you and your adherents, if you do not at once show your- 


48 BUILDERSS OF) PHE CHURCH 


self penitent.” To Thibault, Count of Champagne, he 
exhorted, “Friend, thou who, by God’s permission, hast 
command over many men, is it not just that, in return, 
thou shouldst consecrate to the service of the Lord at 
least one man—that is to say—thyself?” 

Physical weakness increased and Hildebrand fell seri- 
ously ill. But he rallied and said to a friend: “I have 
recovered from my serious illness beyond all hope, and 
I am sorry for it, for my soul was sighing for that 
celestial country where He who sees my sadness and my 
labor prepares rest and refreshment for my weariness. 
I am given back to my usual toils—without being able to 
save the church from shipwreck.” Though he began to 
feel his cause was lost, yet he flinched not. “If I had 
been willing to let the princes and the great ones of this 
world have their way,’ he once remarked, “all would 
have been so easy.” For this old man, broken in a great 
battle, the end was near. He noted the steady decline in 
his health and prepared to meet death. As the time drew 
nigh he gathered his clergy about him and in striking 
manner gave testimony as to the unshaken conviction he 
had in the justice of his cause. On May 25, 1085, he 
received his last sacrament, uttered his memorable pas- 
sage, “I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; 
therefore I die in exile,’ after which he breathed his 
last. 

In every detail, Hildebrand’s convictions may not be 
ours, but the tremendous inspiration of his life is this: 
he insisted that the Church of God was an institution of 
dignity and worth, which should not be served at the 
convenience of men as though some minor by-product of 
life. He compelled men to admit its legitimate prestige 
and forbade men for all time to conceive of it as some 
beggar standing at the world’s door. The ages have 
demonstrated that Hildebrand, the little man with a heart 
so full of courage, was eternally right. 


IMPERIALISM 49 


Stupy Topics 


1. Enumerate the factors that contributed to the numerical 
strength of the church up to the eighth century. In what ways 
were these factors an aid or a hindrance to the spiritual develop- 
ment of the church? 

2. Describe the status of the clergy during the eleventh cen- 
tury and show the effect of its lack of spiritual power upon the 
spiritual vitality and missionary zeal of the church at that time. 

3. Against what evils and with what success did Hildebrand 
launch his reforms? 

4. What is the meaning of the term, “the divine right of the 
papacy’? Describe the struggle between Henry IV and Hilde- 
brand, in which the papacy proved the supremacy of its power. 

5. Show the validity or the lack of validity of the claim of the 
papacy of the Middle Ages to imperial power. 

6. Summarize Hildebrand’s great contribution to the building 
of the church. 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Smith, E. A.—Hildebrand, the Builder. 

Walker, Williston—Great Men of the Christian Church, Chap. 
VII. University of Chicago Press. 

Kriger, Gustav—The Papacy, Chaps. VI and VII. G. P. Put- 
nam’s Sons, 1909. 


CHART TRI! 


BERNARD, THE GREAT MONK OF 
CLAIRVAUX 


To be sure, the spirit of Christ failed of its highest 
fulfillment in the papacy, and likewise “monasticism” 
proved an inadequate vehicle for bringing the spirit of 
Jesus to a place of supremacy over the lives of men. But 
failing to note monasticism is to ignore one of the stanch- 
est forces in the life of the early church. 

At a very early age the church grew rich and became 


effete with an opulent luxury. The monk was a protest — 


against this state of life. Poverty, chastity, and obedience 
—to these ethical ideals the monk dedicated his life. 
Early monks lived as hermits in the desert places of 
Egypt; but later when Benedict organized his order, they 
lived together in simple dwellings called monasteries, with 
Benedict’s headquarters at Monte Casino, Italy. With 
this movement also arose the ideal that the truer and 


nobler form of Christianity required a man to isolate 


himself from human society, join a monastery, deny 
himself food and drink, wear scanty clothing, keep per- 
fect silence all day and sing most of the hours of the 
night. 

Those who wished to atone for great sins, gain an 
especially full assurance of salvation, entered these 
monasteries, had their heads shaved, put on the drab garb, 
and gave themselves to meditation, fasting, and vigils. 
Although from our modern point of view believing that 
the Christian is not one with an emaciated body who runs 
away from the world, but, rather, one of robust physique 
who mingles in the fray of life and smites wrong and 
cowardice hip and thigh wherever he finds it, we may 


50 





4 


i 


GREAT MONK OF CLAIRVAUX 51 


have a little sympathy for the ideal of an earlier day. 
Yet when one recalls that these monasteries grew strong 
and then rich, and through the periods of fighting and 
invasion kept the fires of learning burning and the store- 
houses of knowledge from harm, then he can see the 
obligation which is owed the monk. Becoming a monk 
was an honest attempt to make the spirit of Jesus su- 
preme in the world. In monasticism’s attempt to ex- 
press the spirit of Christ there was much which was lofty, 
noble, and of good report; yet with this fine gold was 
mixed much dross. 

Bernard’s family.—In a very insignificant village 
named Dijon lived a knight known more for his “tender- 
heartedness than for his wantonness to shed blood.” 
Tesselin was his name, and his wife Alith was of up- 
right character and godly life. To these refined and 
sensitive parents was born in IOQI A. D. an ordinary- 
looking boy whom they named Bernard. We know 
almost nothing of his youth. Very probably he heard 
the indomitable Peter the Hermit as he rode from town 
to town upon his donkey, denouncing with accents like 
thunder the bloody Turk, and challenging the lords, 
knights, and squires of Christendom to embark upon 
the crusade to rescue the birthplace of Christ from the 
Saracen. 

Quite early in life he decided his vocation. There were 
only about two callings in those days, that is, the call- 
ing of arms and that of the church. Bernard early chose 
to become a monk. The little monastery at Citeaux in 
France was in sad condition; its membership was with- 
out zeal and about ready to give up when Bernard with 
thirty comrades whom he had gathered, came to this 
institution, and it entered upon a new lease of life. It 
was decided that branch monasteries of this Cistercian 
Order should be organized, and Bernard was chosen to 
head a number of monks who traveled about ninety miles 
from Citeaux to the “Valley of Wormwood.” In this 


52 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


forsaken place, during the autumnal season of the year 
they built crude shelters and nearly died in winter, as 
there was practically nothing save beech nuts for them 
to exist upon. This valley of “wormwood” was trans- 
figured by these valiant monks into a dell of beauty 
known the world over as Clairvaux, while Bernard as 
abbot of Clairvaux was destined shortly to become 
one of the famous Christians of all time. 

The papal schism.—When Innocent II was elected 
Pope another faction elected Anacletus IT as Pope also. 
Thereupon Innocent II went to France to enlist the sup- 
port of the French in his struggle for the throne of Peter. 
In connection with this struggle Bernard first left the 
quiet of the monastery and entered into the problems of 
the larger world. Realizing that a schism headed by 
two contesting Popes would break the unity of the 
church and allow its many enemies to triumph, the abbot 
of Clairvaux was aroused with a holy horror. He had 
so molded public opinion that the schism was healed. 
The papacy was no longer divided, and it would be diffi- 
cult to state the prestige and moral influence which had 
come to Bernard of Clairvaux. It was said that 
the true Pope of the church resided in the monastery 
at Clairvaux. 

Knights Templars.—Two tremendous human impulses 
dominated the life of the Middle Ages—the impulse to 
fast and to pray and the impulse to fight. In 1113 an 
attempt was made to join together these two instincts in 
the Knights Hospitallers, who purposed “To live in 
chastity, obedience, poverty, and for the remission of 
their sins to keep the roads and passes free from robbers 
and assailants, and to watch over the safety of pilgrims 
as much as they could.” The crusades stimulated this 
spirit, and soon we find the Knights Templars organized 
for the same purpose. Lofty were the ideals of these 


orders. Templars dressed plainly with short hair, re- 


fused to gamble or play dice, to waste time in hunting 





GREAT MONK OF CLAIRVAUX 53 


or hawking; they would not indulge in the too universal 
practice of jesting or the telling too ribald or obscene 
stories. There were those in the church who wished 
these orders suppressed; but Bernard saw the need of 
them in lands filled with noblemen who could rarely be 
distinguished from freebooters, and so he attacked those 
who opposed these fighting orders, with the result that 
they were permitted to remain in the church for many 
generations. 

Peter Abelard.1—Bernard, after these two battles in 
behalf of the church, fain would have retired to Clair- 
vaux and there spend the remainder of his life in medi- 
tation, when there arose an older man, Peter Abelard, 
whose teachings were throwing consternation into the 
hearts of all who loved the church. Undoubtedly, Peter 
Abelard possessed one of the greatest and keenest minds 
the church has ever seen. Indeed, his independent think- 
ing was a very healthful sign for the mental life of the 
church. It was approaching real problems and trying to 
solve them. But the greater Abelard’s intellectual fame 
became the less gracious of character he grew. He 
waxed haughty and proud. He believed that so long as 
his intellect was rugged he never could fail. Bernard, 
however, took another view of life, for he believed that 
the human intellect needed watching and had great possi- 
bilities of becoming a great curse to man’s welfare. This 
Abelard would never admit. Roughly speaking, Abe- 
lard may be described as owning a keen mind and a some- 
what soiled nature, while Bernard was master of a pure 
nature and a somewhat fettered mind. It was the old 
struggle ever present among Christians who so often have 
failed to realize that the Christian ideal includes both 
the keen mind of Abelard and the lucid, pure nature of 
Bernard. Finally Abelard wrote his Introduction to 
*See Joseph McCabe, Peter Abelard (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), 


for an excellent account of the church from a point of view 
opposite that of Bernard’s. 


54 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


Theology—a brilliant piece of work—which, because of 
the tremendous influence of Bernard, was condemned. 

The prophet.—What was the secret of this enormous 
power which the church voluntarily committed to the 
trust of one single person? An explanation can be made 
only by saying that Bernard was wonderfully blessed 
with humility and utterly void of any fear. When King 
Louis VI took some property belonging to Stephen, 
Bishop of Paris, Bernard called him a thief. 

Late in life his own sister, Humbeline, came to visit 
him at Clairvaux. Bernard would not so much as go 
out to admit her. Finally he went and told her plainly 
that her airs as a feudal lady were displeasing to God. 
So impressed was this flighty woman that she burst into 
tears and returned home to a far different life. 

Eugenius, who was later elected Pope, was a dearly 
loved disciple of Bernard’s, but his regard for his former 
pupil made no difference to this brave abbot. Early in 
this Pope’s reign he wrote a long letter to the pontiff urg- 
ing a reform in the papacy. All day long the Pope was 
engaged hearing lawsuits, quarrels, and disputes; all the 
monsters of human life flocked to Rome seeking some 
ulterior end. While the Pope was attending to these 
matters he was guilty of neglecting widows and orphans. 

The commanding voice—He was a preacher of 
dynamic power. His truth flashed as lightning. One has 
only to read his “Sermon on the Passion” to discover 
why it was that neighbors, lords, and serfs, as well as 
monks, came to listen whenever he preached at the chapel 
of Clairvaux. One day Henry, the son of King Louis 
VI, visited the monastery but remained to hear the ser- 
mon, and so mighty were the torrents of truth let loose 
in his soul that he was swept from the moorings of sel- 
fishness and became then and there a monk. Andrew of 
Paris, his comrade, cursed Bernard for this occurrence 
and left. He asserted that Henry was drunk and then 
crazy. But so great was the power of this militant 


GREAT MONK OF CLAIRVAUX 55 


preacher that ere long the cursing Andrew returned 
and himself became a monk. 

After his own brother Gerard had died, Bernard 
preached his funeral sermon with such warmth and 
brotherly love that all who heard it were melted to tears. 
The ancient Cathedral of Milan, where the golden 
tongued Ambrose so many years before preached, was 
offered to him. The Pope asked him to become a cardinal ; 
but Bernard of Clairvaux he was, and such he wanted to 
stay all his life. 

The second crusade.—It caused little surprise, there- 
fore, when the Pope called upon this famous monk to 
preach the second crusade. The many journeys made in 
behalf of the church, the heavy labor of preaching, the 
calls which for the past twenty years had been coming in 
on all sides had aged this old warrior of the cross. 
Though but little over fifty years of age, he longed for 
the seclusion of his cell. But the church called, and he 
would not fail her. 

With a stout heart he set forth. Louis VII was about 
to indulge in penance for a crime committed three years 
previous, when he had burned to the ground the church 
at Vitry and over one thousand people perished in the 
orgy. He fell under the spell of Bernard and decided 
to expiate his murdering of Christians by slaughtering 
several thousand infidels. When Bernard preached the 
crusade at Veselai, so great was the throng that not half 
could hear his voice. But the magnificent gesture of his 
person, the flash of his eye, the power of his truth so 
touched all that they nearly crushed him to death in their 
endeavor to get near enough to touch the hem of his gar- 
ments, and the king had to carry him in his own arms 
bodily, above the crowd, to save his life. 
Conrad III of Germany would at first have nothing 

to do with the crusade. Then came Bernard. He 
preached. The haughty emperor bowed his proud head. 
As the sermon continued this mighty man of valor cried 


56 BUILDERS*OP TEE: Crh Gia 


out in his inner anguish: “I acknowledge the gifts of 
divine favor; neither for the future shall I be found 
ungrateful to God’s mercy. I am prepared to serve 
him.” A great shout went up from the crowd. Bernard 
gave the emperor a cross. 

The spirit of lusting for blood found it easier to kill 
Jews who were near at hand than Saracens who were far 
away. At the -beginning of the first crusade race 
prejudice held sway. So horrible were the butcheries and 
mutilations suffered by: the Jews that they stabbed their 
own children to save them from the bloody Christian. 
Their women jumped into the rivers of every hamlet. 
Now that the second crusade was about to begin, the 
same old hatred flamed up. Rodolph, a priest, incited 
terrible massacres all along the banks of the Rhine. With 
a wrath terrible to behold Bernard went out to meet these 
inhuman butchers. His denunciations rolled in upon 
their consciences like thunder and his truth pierced their 
hearts like a stroke of lightning. He met Rodolph face 
to face and rebuked him, and sent him home never more 
to work in so nefarious a cause. 

The last days.—Already all Europe was reading his 
sermons and the little children of every household were 
memorizing his hymns. The man who wrote, 


“Jesus, thou Joy of loving hearts, 

Thou Fount of life! thou Light of men! 
From the best bliss that earth imparts 

We turn unfilled to thee again,” 


could not be said to revel in the strife about him. He 
who in the quietness of the midnight hour could say, 


“Jesus, the very thought of thee 
With sweetness fills my breast; 

But sweeter far thy face to see, 
And in thy presence rest,” 


had no true comradeship for the blaze of shining armor. 


GREAT MONK OF CLAIRVAUX 57 


The light was fading. The night was coming on. The 
second crusade dismally failed and Bernard seemed 
stunned with this news. At last he was permitted to re- 
turn to his beloved Clairvaux, now famous the world 
over. The great monk found his strength failing. 
When his last moments came those who stood about his 
couch, which consisted of a cloth laid over some ashes 
strewn in the shape of a cross, could not withhold their 
tears. He gave his last confession, and as he passed 
away I venture his very own poetry was uppermost in his 
mind: 

“Be near me when I’m dying, 
O show thy cross to me; 
And, for my succor flying, 
Come, Lord, and set me free: 
These eyes, new faith receiving, 
From Jesus shall not move; 
For he who dies believing, 
Dies safely, through thy love.” 


And so he passed out, leaving the church cleaner, the 
world purer, and bequeathing unto us a priceless legacy. 
He represented monasticism at its best. 


Stupy Topics 


1. Compare our modern interpretation of what it means to be 
a Christian, with the monastic ideal of what it meant to be a 
true follower of Christ. 

2. Discuss monasticism in detail, showing its aims, its prin- 
ciples, and methods of procedure, and especially its contributions 
to the building of the church. 

3. Contrast Peter Abelard with Bernard and show how 
Bernard’s ideals of life proved their validity and strength over 
Abelard’s. 

4. Describe Bernard’s prophetic activities toward the evils of 
the church in his day. Discuss the effectiveness of such a 
method in instituting and carrying on a reform of any kind. 

5. Summarize the outstanding qualities of Bernard’s life and 
show how these aided him in making his great contributions to 
the church. 

6. Discuss in detail the movement known as the crusades, as 


58 BUILDERSIOBR VTE Or Wi Gig 


to its essential purpose, plan of procedure, and relative success 
or failure. Who were the Knights Templars and how did they 
function in the church of the Middle Ages? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Lord, John—Beacon Lights of History, pp. 175-208. 
Morrison, J. C—Life and Times of St. Bernard. 
McCabe, Joseph—Peter Abelard. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 


rN a Devil 


SAINT FRANCIS AND THE MENDICANT 
ORDERS 


Very early in the history of the church the papacy had 
troubles all its own. Never was there a time when the 
whole of Christendom was satisfied with the claims ad- 
vanced by Hildebrand or his followers. A certain sect 
known as the Catharites especially disturbed the peace. 
These folks pictured the world as a great stage upon 
which the scene of the perpetual conflict between good 
and evil forever took place. God and the devil 
were the leaders of the opposing sides. This sect con- 
sidered the Old Testament as of greater value than the 
New. They believed God to be served best when there 
was no complex worship, a simple ritual, and no formali- 
ties. They were opposed to a man going through the 
form of signing a title to his property. The marriage 
ceremony they considered unnecessary. Finally the Pope 
became so exasperated that he induced the French king 
to send an army against these heretics, and they were 
wiped out in 1229 with much slaughter and cruelty. The 
church had not learned that wholesome opposition was 
healthful to its life. 

Quite different were the Waldenses. These unique 
people found their origin in a certain Waldo, a very 
thrifty and prosperous merchant living in Lyons. In 
1173 he organized a group of friends who were intent 
upon going out into the countryside and preaching to any- 
body who would listen. When they went they literally 
followed out the commands of Jesus and wore no shoes, 
neither did they carry any purses. This sect grew and 
asked to be recognized by the Pope as a useful adjunct 
of the church. Such recognition was not granted, and 


59 


60 BUILDERS OP ST ER eGhiU hie 


the Waldensian movement developed into a group of 
people outside of the church and unfriendly to it. Free 
opinion was not much admired or tolerated by the church 
of those days, and what the Pope could not direct he 
sought to annihilate. A terrible persecution took place 
and the Waldenses moved to the mountain passes west 
of the city of Turin, where they defended themselves. 
Though in the years to follow many were tortured and 
slain, still they persisted in the teaching of the open 
Bible and public preaching in the vernacular, and to this 
day they are found in Italy in large numbers. 

Francis of Assisi—In the midst of these affairs a 
little boy was born in a godly home of Assisi in the year 
1182. Early in his life he had no interest whatsoever in 
religion, and then he grew, entered the first war which 
took place, and was taken prisoner to Perugia. On his 
liberation he determined to become a soldier. Not long 
after, he heard a voice telling him to build again the 
ruined Church of Saint Damian. Odd indeed were his 
actions, for he did not stop even to go home; but took 
much of his father’s merchandise—for his father was a 
mercer—and sold it together with the horse he rode, re- 
turned to the church and gave the poor priest the money 
from this sale for its reconstruction. His father was in 
a rage. Francis hid in a pit for two or three days, and 
at last felt he must meet his sire, who at once haled 
him to court. It was before the judge Francis renounced 
his father, decided to live in poverty, and go about doing 
good. With a white cross chalked upon his tunic he set 
forth. 

The literal imitation of Christ.—Three men, Bernard 
of Quintavalle, Peter Catani, and the blessed Brother 
Giles, of Assisi, followed Francis. Jesus never married, 
so they would never marry. Jesus sent his disciples out 
two by two and so would they. Jesus taught his disci- 
ples one fixed form of prayer in the Lord’s Prayer, 
therefore no Franciscan would indulge in anything but 


THE MENDICANT ORDERS 61 


a fixed form of prayer in public. Thus with neither 
gold nor silver, wallet nor shoes nor staff, and with but 
one coat they set out to call men to repentance. It was 
the same old mistake of the Middle Ages. It was the 
error which has ever characterized Christianity from its 
foundation to this very hour—the mistake of asserting 
that the only imitation of Jesus is that of external form 
and in the realm of the material. Religious cranks, ab- 
normal premillenarianists, all commit this blunder. The 
only imitation of Christ which counts is the spiritual 
imitation. It was the spirit dominating these Francis- 
cans, and not their outward form, which made them 
Christians of such power. 

They ministered to lepers whom others feared to touch. 
All admitted to the order vowed to restore all ill-gotten 
gains, to become reconciled to their enemies and live in 
peace, to keep certain fasts and vigils, pay tithes, to take 
no oath, never to wear arms, to use no foul language, 
and live in a pious attitude toward the dead. 

Recognition of the order.—By 1212 over five thou- 
sand had entered or were ready to enter upon the order 
and take the vows. Francis approached the Pope and asked 
for recognition. By this time the papacy had learned a 
lesson from its dealing with the Catharites and Waldenses 
and was not so ready to place the ban upon every loyal 
movement within the church. Still, it took much diplo- 
macy and compromise before such a rule was made as 
the papacy would recognize. 

Since the Pope had given permission to go outside 
of parish boundaries, Francis went up and down the 
peninsula of Italy, preaching to vast throngs wherever 
he went. The beauty of his life, which was without 


ostentation, his frankness, the downright piety, the | 


rugged persistence in following hard after the truth as he 
saw it, and his humble devotion to the gospel of Christ 


won for him in a crass generation many admirers on | 


every side. 


62 BUILDERS OP GPHE CHURCH 


His power as a preacher was marvelous. Whenever 
news arrived that Francis was coming to a village, busi- 
ness came to a standstill, while men and women, old folks 
and little children ran out to meet him. Strong men strug- 
gled to touch the hem of his tunic while women bent down 
to kiss the prints made by his feet upon the ground. 
Though he was simple, he went to the very core of the 
matter and with such passion that he swept his hearers 
from their feet. Repeatedly he would go into a city rent 
with strife and preach his gospel of good will and peace, 
and so moving were his words that noble families 
“sundered by ancient blood feuds were reconciled for- 
ever.’ Aside from this inner piety there was one unique 
reason for this noteworthy ministry which marked an ad- 
vance in the development of the Christian movement ; 
that is, Francis preached in the vernacular. 

The breadth of the order—Another democratic pro- 
cedure was the establishment of a division of this order 
for women and another branch for laymen who would 
never become ordained. A certain lady, Claire, asked if 
she could not join Francis. Her golden locks were shorn 
from her head, in place of her silken girdle she put on 
cotton, and coarse hemp took the place of her beautiful 
gown. Her silken hose were removed and she went bare- 
footed. Under the leadership of this woman of noble 
blood, the woman’s division, known as the “poor Clairs,” 
made great strides forward. The ‘“Seculars’” was the 
name given to those laymen who desired to imitate Christ 
and yet remain in their married estate. This was a great 
concession, for neither women nor laymen had been ad- 
mitted upon substantially equal terms into the member- 
ship of any of the great monastic orders. 

The opposition—From two sources came great 
opposition. Francis was much worried because his 
brothers were wont to forget their vow of poverty. The 
very success of the order made them discontented with 
living upon coarse bread alone, travel barefooted, and 


THE MENDICANT ORDERS 63 


sleep in mere hovels. Here and there great churches 
were springing up—for this order had the backing of 
the populace. 

Then, too, great criticism came from the regular 
clergy. We find them raising an objection which is to be 
brought before us again and again ere our story ends, 
namely, that these men who are without parishes and 
who are permitted to enter the parish of any priest, are 
interfering with the work of the priest in that they are 
taking his following with them. But Francis believed 
that if the regular clergy established within their parishes 
were either too lazy or too indifferent to the wants and 
needs of the common people who lived about them; then 
his traveling friars were justified in going wheresoever 
they would. 

Popularity of Francis——Though the last years of 
Francis were full of anxiety the love of the people for 
him was unwavering. Heartbroken because of the ma- 
terial power accruing to his order, he broke in health. 
Blindness came on. Cardinal Hugolin urgently begged 
him to go for treatment and finally sent him to a famous 
doctor at Rieti. Surgery in those days was savage, and 
a red-hot iron was slowly drawn across his face from ear 
to eyebrow and his frail body was bled again and again. 
Plasters and eye salve were freely applied. After a few 
months of this he was brought to a famous physician 
at Siene. While here a severe hemorrhage admonished 
him that the end was near. Dropsy then set in and our 
death-stricken saint was carried by a sorrowful band 
back to his beloved Assisi. He asked that he might re- 
ceive the sacrament and afterward repeated the One 
Hundred and Forty-second Psalm: “I cry to the Lord 
with my voice,’ and while so crying his great spirit was 
released from his small body. They buried him in Assisi, 
and to-day a huge cathedral—unlike anything he would 
have desired—marks the resting place of this great saint 
of the common people. 


64 BUILDERS OF THE’ CHURCH 


The results of the life of Francis—With Europe in 
so wretched a condition, with the submerged classes al- 
together too little noticed by the church, with a priest- 
hood frequently lazy and notorious for preaching dull 
and uninspiring sermons, the Franciscan movement could 
not but succeed. Soon, together with the Dominicans, 
who were organized at about this time, they spread to 
France, Spain, and England, eventually going even so 
far as China. 

With their entry into other lands their popularity was 
as great as in Italy. Different from the older monas- 
ticism, they did not isolate themselves from humanity ; 
but as they reared their temples in London, Gloucester, 
or Harwich, they built exceedingly plain structures of 
very large capacity right in the midst of the people. 
They rubbed elbows at every hand with all humanity. 

The rise of these two orders made a rare combination 
which became endowed with a marked missionary zeal. 
Learning was not despised, and it was usually the case 
that the school followed the coming of these friars to 
England. It would not be far astray to say that the rise 
of the “mendicant orders,” as these were called, indicated 
that certain far-seeing spirits in the church proposed to 
try the way to democratic education in order to see if 
a new day could not be brought in. The autocratic claims 
first announced by Hildebrand were not working happily, 
the monasticism of Bernard with its abnormal emphasis 
upon the other world, although greatly admired, was 
helping the top but not the lower strata of society. Now 
education was to be tried. 

Eventually this process of education slowed down, but 
not before men had seen enough of the light to make 
them discontented. When the processes of enlightening 
the mind were discounted for other substitutes, the 
church made a blunder for which she suffered, and that 
right dearly—it broke her into faction, increased con- 
fusion, promoted the courage of the papacy to make 


THE MENDICANT ORDERS 65 


greater claims, and forwarded the determination of others 
to emphatically deny these claims with an equal bravery. 
Unethical confusion abounded, from which we are not 
yet freed. 

The immediate result of this discontent we shall pro- 
ceed to investigate. But meanwhile let us remember that 
sweet-spirited Christian who tried “the better way,” re- 
minded men of Christ, and demonstrated to what heights 
the Christian procession could climb if it would rid itself 
of snobbishness and get down to that glorious business of 
delivering its truth with sincerity and unadulterated love 
to the common man. 


Stupy Topics 


1. What are the dangers involved in being a Christian ac- 
cording to the letter of the teachings of Jesus, rather than ac- 
cording to the spirit and example of Jesus? Show how this 
danger influenced the work of Saint Francis and the Order of 
the Barefoot Friars. 

2. Trace the outstanding events in the life and work of Saint 
Francis and summarize the qualities he possessed which made 
him a builder of the church. 

3. What were the essential principles that controlled the 
organization and activities of the Franciscan Order? 

4. Indicate the effect of the Franciscan Order upon the spir- 
itual life of the church, on the one hand, and upon the needs 
of the people on the other. 

5. What part did education play in the work of the “Mendi- 
cant” orders? Discuss the place and importance of education 
in any reform movement. 

6. How do reform movements usually originate? Can you 
give any illustrations from our own time that show the rela- 
tive effectiveness of reforms from within an organization and 
of reforms from without. 

7. What kind of reform was most needed in the church dur- 
ing the eleventh century? 

8. Show how a church reformer may also be a church builder. 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Okey, T.—The Little Flowers of St. Francts. 
Salter, K. Gurney—The Life of St. Francts. 


66 BUILDERS OF REE GE Wik Gis 


Steele, Robert—The Mirror of Perfection, Vol. I. 

Walker, Williston—History of the Christian Church, pp. 
254-261; Great Men of the Christian Church, Chap. IX. Univer- © 
sity of Chicago Press. . | 

Robinson, Paschal—Francis of Assisi. 





CHA aE Re VEL 
Pere ow NO rehti to RISING EDISCON TEND 


AUTOCRACY with its corresponding suppression of the 
human mind never can remain long unquestioned. 
Claims made by the papacy and supported by monasticism 
—that very loyal institution of the church—increased 
rather than diminished, and what Hildebrand stated, In- 
nocent III, a most imperial Pope, added to. During the 
century which had elapsed between Saint Francis and 
the birth of Huss, a great moral breaking down was 
taking place within the monasteries, the monks often 
lived corrupt lives, while it is hardly too much to say 
that there was elected to the papacy a series of men so 
polluted in their inner lives as eventually to force a desire 
for reform from within the hierarchy itself. Beholding 
this lowness of morals in the church, and especially in 
the papacy and the monasteries, discontent sprang up and 
flourished. 

Early heretics.—Arnold of Brescia as early as 1155 
boldly opposed the claims of the Pope. Almaric of Bena 
went further and repudiated the worship of saints, the 
use of images and old relics which were supposed to 
work miracles, and strongly opposed the practice of con- 


_fession to a priest. John Tauler, a Dominican friar, 


born in 1300 A. D., became famous as a preacher and 


condemned the superficiality of religious life. Drunken, 


debauched priests could not influence men for righteous- 
ness. “No man can teach what he has not lived through 
himself” was his central teaching. 

Two other men became outstanding in their demand 
for reform within the church. One, Savonarola, 
preached with such unction against the abuses of the 

67 


68 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


papacy that he has ever been thought of as a prophet of 
God. His church was crowded to the doors, and as he 
called with imperial mien, “Florence, prepare to meet thy 
God,” the people of high and low estate trembled before 
him. Despite his great popularity he was burned at the 
stake. The second man conspicuously to protest, was 
more of a scholar than a preacher—John Wiclif, of 
great repute at the University of Oxford. With disgust 
and indignation he denounced the condition of the church, 
wrote many able pamphlets on this theme, and sent 
priests of his own mind—called Lollards—to summon 
the people to repentance. He translated the Bible, called 
the Pope “antichrist.” So popular was he with the peo- 
ple and so strongly supported by the nobles of England 
that he remained unhurt and died a natural death. 

Huss and Bohemia.—Folks living in Bohemia were 
hearing of Savonarola, and Wiclif. Christianity had first 
come to this land independently of the Roman Church. 
Originally the Bohemian Church was an unfettered 
institution in which the priests were allowed to marry, 
while the laymen were treated more democratically, being 
allowed to take the communion in “‘both kinds,” that is, 
receiving both the bread and the wine. When the 
church at Rome took over the Bohemian Church and 
assumed control, withholding wine from the laity and 
forbidding priests to marry, the people resented it. On 
April 7, 1348, the noted University of Prague was 
founded. For high scholarship and deep learning this 
university became known throughout the world, and thou- 
sands daily attended its classrooms. Resentment, though 
hidden, still smoldered. 

Into such an atmosphere as this John Huss was born, 
July 6, 1369. His parents were so humble that we know 
nothing at all about them, and so poor was his home 
that we have no knowledge of his early life. As he grew 
older he proved a scholar of no mean ability and re- 
ceived the degree of Bachelor of Arts, then Bachelor of 


THE RISING DISCONTENT 69 


Theology, and finally—in those days one of the highest 
degrees to be obtained—there was conferred upon him 
in 1396 the degree of Master of Arts. Though not as 
brilliant as Wiclif, he owned a great mind, and in 1401 
was elected Dean of the Philosophical Faculty in the Uni- 
versity of Prague—at that time the second greatest uni- 
versity in the world. 

Bethlehem Chapel.—Among Huss’ greatest gifts was 
that of oratory. Very soon he was appointed preacher 
at Bethlehem Chapel, a place of great popularity in 
Prague. This chapel was erected for the expressed pur- 
pose of giving the public opportunity of hearing the 
gospel in the native tongue. 

From this pulpit Huss attacked the weaknesses of the 
church: the luxury of the prelates and bishops, the moral 
slackness from the Pope down to the lowest priest, and, 
what was most important of all, he announced what 
from now on is to become a principle of contention in 
the history of the Christian movement—that the Bible 
alone is the only true code of the Christian life and that 
church councils and the commands of the Pope were to 
be obeyed only when they agreed with it. When such 
commands ran counter to the Bible they were not to be 
followed. The Bible took the place of papal authority. 

Not long afterward Huss took a trip abroad, and on 
his return home brought back a large number of Wiclif’s 
works, which were in part reprinted and in part 
plagiarized and published broadcast about Bohemia. Re- 
membering how Wiclif called the Pope “antichrist,” 
enemies sought to fasten all of Wiclif’s opinions upon 
Huss. A decree was passed saying no member of the 
university should teach the way of Wiclif or privately 
spread his doctrines. 

The “Babylonian Captivity.”—The papacy was sink- 
ing even lower. In 1305 Bertrand de Got, Archbishop of 
Bordeaux, finally made a shameful bargain with Philip 
the Fair, king of France, in which he promised, if elected 


70 BUILDERS’ OF tHE CHURGEH 


Pope, to remove the seat of the papacy from Rome to 
France. He was elected, and the papacy was removed 
from Rome for a period of about three quarters of a 
century. The Pope lived at Avignon, and the period of 
his absence from Rome was called the “Babylonian Cap- 
tivity.” During this “captivity” two Popes were elected, 
and strife and wickedness unworthy a pagan emperor pre- 
vailed. The king of Bohemia declared himself neutral 
in this scandal, and Huss took the same stand. Ger- 
mans present at the university refused to give up their 
allegiance to Pope Gregory XII, so when Huss and the 
king persisted in their position of neutrality there took 
place the famous “secession” of the German members of 
the University of Prague. Thousands daily left the 
university and went to Oxford, Paris, Bologna and the 
like. So excessive an exodus forced a reorganization of 
this school on a new basis. 

Huss continued to preach to even larger crowds. 
Once while preaching on the subject of his dealings with 
the Pope, he cried out to the people, “Will you stand by 
me?” and the entire congregation shouted, “Yes, we will 
stand by you.” Opposition to the Pope became so great 
that the whole city of Prague was laid under interdict. 
This meant that the dead could not be buried by any 
priest in holy ground, that marriage was not to be cele- 
brated, that no sermons were to be preached, and the 
churches were to be closed. 

Jerome of Prague—a greater orator than Huss—ably 
supported this cause, and gave such a magnificent ad- 
dress on the whole subject that the enthusiasm of the 
people knew no bounds. He received an ovation, was 
carried on their shoulders past the archbishop’s house 
to the market place of the city, where the Pope’s bulls 
were burned. When the priests tried to defend the Pope 
from their pulpits there was riot. In three different 
churches, just as the preacher defended indulgences, 
young men arose and cried out aloud: “You lie. We have 





‘THER RISING DISCONTENT 71 


heard from Master Huss how all that is false.’ These 
men were jailed and secretly executed, to the horror of 
the entire city. 

. The height of the opposition.—Alarm overcame the 
Pope. He commissioned Cardinal Peter Saint Angelo to 
seize Huss and deliver him up to the archbishop of 
Prague, and then to see to it that Bethlehem Chapel was 
burned to the ground. The city still remained under 
interdict. So serious became the situation that the king 
asked Huss to leave the city for a while, which he did. 

The exile—While away Huss appealed in writing to 
the people from the authority of the Pope to that of Jesus 
Christ. This appeal created tremendous excitement. He 
then began to write, and we find that on two important 
facts he differs from the Pope. 

In his ideal of the church he claimed the Bible was the 
ultimate authority and the constitution within the church, 
and he was opposed to the power wielded by hierarchy 
and Pope. In the place of the simple organization of 
Paul’s day, a vast system based upon the plan of the 
Roman Empire had grown up against which Huss raised 
his voice. Huss asserted that the church should not rule 
over the princes, but that every nation should have its 
own church. 

His second point of disagreement was in connection 
with his attitude toward the Bible. This book, and 
neither synods, councils, claims of church doctors, nor 
bulls, was the high authority of the church. The Bible 
alone—not church fathers—was the sole source of Chris- 
tian truth. This was a radical departure. As Kuhns 
so beautifully says: “It was the unshakable faith in the 
Holy Scriptures as the ultimate rule of faith that made 
him immovable in the face of hatred, abuse, and even 
death at the stake.” 

Council of Constance.—The moral stench of a divided 
papacy could not much longer be borne with, and a 
council was called together to see what could be done 


72 BUILDERS OR VTHE CH Uw 


to mend the affairs in the church. Huss was summoned 
to appear before this council, held at the city of Con- 
stance. Sigismund, brother of King Wenzel of Bohemia, 
promised Huss a safe-conduct if he would attend. The 
king gave him a fine bodyguard, which stood by him to 
the uttermost, and he secured an important document 
from the papal inquisitor, Nicholas of Nazareth, which 
declared that the inquisitor had heard him preach often 
and had found never an error of heresy in him. Arch- 
bishop Conrad also sent a letter to the emperor which 
stated that he knew no error of heresy in Huss. So 
fortified, Huss left for Constance. 

On arriving in Constance he took lodging in the house 
of a poor widow on the public square near the palace of 
the Pope. A monk was sent to spy on him, and soon, 
although he had a safe-conduct from the emperor, he was 
thrown into a dark dungeon in the immediate neighbor- 
hood of a sewer where he remained until March 24, 
I41S—a period of some months. While in this wretched 
hole, his health so suffered that a fever laid hold of him, 
threatening his very life, and Pope John XXIII was 
obliged to send his own physician to attend him. The 
treachery of Sigismund, too vile to mention, has never 
been forgotten by succeeding ages. One hundred years 
later, when Charles V was urged to violate the safe-con- 
duct which he had given Luther to come to Worms, he 
silenced all those who urged him to break his word by 
saying: “I do not wish to blush as Sigismund did.” 

In Bohemia the news of Huss’ imprisonment due to 
the treachery of the emperor, together with the false 
accusations brought against him by his enemies, filled 
both king and nobles with rage—but to no avail. He was 
moved to a dungeon in a Dominican monastery and later 
moved to a Franciscan monastery, where with greater 
cruelty he was placed in chains in this castle of Gottlieben, 
a few miles away from the city of Constance. Here 
in a high tower he sat with his feet enchained and at 


ee 


THE RISING DISCONTENT 73 


night his hands were chained to a wall. His jailers 
brought the meanest of food. 

Not until June 5, 1415, did his trial begin. For three 
days it lasted, making a farce of justice. Charges unsup- 
ported were brought against him. Speaking of the Pope, 
this noble son of the church withstood his accusers face 
to face and said: “If the Pope lives after another manner 
than Saint Peter did, if he is covetous, he is the vicar of 
Judas Iscariot, who courted the wages of iniquity, by sell- 
ing Jesus Christ.’ Remembering the morals of the 
papacy at this time, one can well understand why the 
council gnashed its teeth at such a cutting indictment 
given by a man in chains. 

The condemnation.—Finally, on July 6, 1415, he was 
condemned. A bishop preached a long sermon with the 
text—Oh, shameful mockery—‘That the body of sin 
might be destroyed!’ ‘Then Huss was degraded from 
the priesthood by having his robes one after the other re- 
moved, then the chalice was taken from his hand and he 
was called “cursed Judas,” and finally a paper crown, or 
miter, upon which were painted figures of devils, was 
placed upon his head, and while so decorated the council 
formally and publicly devoted his soul to hell. 

In this condition he was handed over to the magistrates 
of Constance, who ordered him to be burned. As the 
wood was piled about him he was asked to recant, but 
replied with the majesty of a king: “God is my witness 
that I have never taught nor preached those things which 
have been falsely ascribed to me, and the chief aim of all 
my preaching, writing, and acts was, that I might save 
men from sin; and to-day I am willing to die for the 
truth of this gospel which I have taught, written, and 
preached.” And as the torch was applied and the flames 
leaped up he cried out, “O Christ, thou Son of the living 
God, have mercy upon us!” and gave up his spirit. 

The Hussite wars.—And the church rued the day this 
man was burned. Bohemia was enraged. The king 


"4 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


and the nobles sent a mighty protest to Constance. The 
common people, filled with hatred, vowed his revenge. 
We cannot go into the whole story here. Suffice it to 
say that for twenty-five years the soldiers of Bohemia 
struck terror into the hearts of the enemies of Huss. 
Under the brilliant John Ziska they won battle after 
battle. Thousands were slain. When Ziska died Pro- 
copius carried on the work. The Pope ordered a crusade 
against the Bohemians. Germany was aroused, France 
enlisted, Italy sent her forces. But the spirit of the gal- 
lant Huss was more than a match for these mercenaries. 
They were thoroughly beaten. The Bohemians ravaging 
the country took an awful revenge, sacked, plundered. 
and killed wherever they went. What the papacy had 
sown, even that it reaped. 

Eventually these brave people were overwhelmed by 
their German neighbors. The faith of Rome was forced 
upon them. It seemed for centuries as though Huss had 
died in vain. But with the German yoke thrown off by 
the Great War, a new nation comes on to the map of 
Europe, named Czecho-Slovakia—the people of Huss. 
They have not forgotten. The first thing they do after 
gaining their national independence is to proclaim reli- 
gious liberty for all. Thousands upon thousands leave 
the church of Rome forever. Time moves slowly. The 
centuries have passed and now we know that when Rome 
burned Huss, Rome lost Bohemia. 

Over the grave of the great Hussite general are these 
words: “O Huss! here lies John Ziska, your avenger, and 
the emperor himself has bent before him.” 


Stupy Topics 


1. To what extent has heresy helped or hindered Chris- 
tianity’s advance? When and under what conditions is heresy 
not only justifiable but desirable? 

2. Give a brief sketch of the life of Savonarola and John 
Wiclif. Summarize their essential contributions to the Chris- 
tian enterprise. 


THE RISING DISCONTENT 75 


3. How did his early home background and training fit John 
Huss for his role as a builder of the church? Describe his 
later training. Could he have been such a great influence in the 
religious and political affairs of Europe had he been less 
trained? 

4. Discuss the value and importance of specific and extensive 
training for the task of being a builder of the church of the 
present day. 

5. What factors within the church led up to the “Babylonian 
Captivity” ? 

6. Against what conditions within the church did Huss launch 
his reforms and with what results? 

- 7, Upon what basic principles concerning the church and the 
Bible did he base his strength? Are these principles justifiable 
to-day? Justify your answers. 

8. Describe the closing events in the life of John Huss. What 
did his martyrdom achieve for the Christian Church? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 
Kuhns, Oscar—John Huss, the Witness. 


CEA EIR RO VLEL 
THE MAN WHO STRADDLED A MORAL ISSUE 


In 1466 there came to the home of a modest man and 
wife living in comfortable circumstances a little boy 
named Desiderius Erasmus. When born few people liv- 
ing in the city of Rotterdam noted his arrival, and in 
his early youth both father and mother died, leaving 
him to the ungentle care of some legal guardians, who 
unjustly administered the property which was left to 
him and finally committed him to a monastery. With no 
willing spirit did he enter upon the life of the monks. 
His experience here demonstrated that the high ideals 
which characterized the monks of the time of Francis or 
Hildebrand was rapidly disappearing and low, sordid, 
and immoral standards were increasingly in control. 


Erasmus became disgusted with the monks, never forgot — 


their wickedness, laziness, and stupidity, and fled forever 
from the monastery as soon as an opportunity for release 


offered itself. He was a lonely man, lived in a lonely | 


fashion and worked his way all alone to the top rung of 
the intellectual ladder of life. With little outside help, 
Erasmus became the greatest scholar in the Europe of 
his day. | 


Culture of Erasmus.—This refined and cultured © 
gentleman traveled extensively and visited England, Ger- — 


many, France, and Italy. In England he became ac- 
quainted with Sir Thomas More, who wrote that quaint 
book called Utopia, in which he tried to picture the ideal 
society. All Englishmen were astounded at his learn- 


ing, and the king invited him to become Lady Margaret — 


Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge—one 


of the greatest distinctions which could be conferred — 
upon any man. This invitation Erasmus declined to ac- — 


76 


ee ee ee 


STRADDLING A MORAL ISSUE ni 


cept, as he wished to continue his studies and travel. 
Finally he selected the city of Basel as his home and 
lived there until almost the day of his death. 

Erasmus was famed for his knowledge of the classics 
in Greek and Latin. He translated Origen, Ovid, Cicero, 
and edited their texts. Even to-day his reputation would 
be unusually high as a teacher of either Greek or Latin 
in a high school or college. He adored Socrates, and at 
times told his friends he felt like saying in his devotions, 
“Holy Socrates, pray for us.” Although his own Latin 
was faulty in grammar, he considered Cicero the great- 
est writer of Latin the world ever saw, and, like Cicero, 
owned a delicate beauty and strength in the Latin he 
himself wrote. 

Being so wonderful a.Greek scholar, he was able to 
see the many inaccuracies in Jerome’s version of the 
Scriptures, which was then commonly in use, and began 
his edition of the New Testament in Greek, which was, 
when completed, one of the greatest accomplishments 
of his life. Indeed, without this Greek text, which was a 
most scholarly piece of work and which had been so 
carefully prepared by Erasmus, Martin Luther never 
could have made his famous translation into the popular 
tongue of his land—the German. 

Erasmus the man.—Erasmus abhorred little iron 
stoves used in Germany and insisted upon an open fire- 
place. He would drink no wine save Burgundy and, 
what was more remarkable for his day, abhorred any 
form of intemperance. Though his eyesight was bad 
and he did much reading with the wretched candlelight 
common in his day, he never would wear spectacles. He 
walked with a firm tread, but whenever he desired more 
vigorous exercise he rode horseback. Though he never 
married he was intensely fond of children and, like many 
children, he felt a terrible fear of death. He bitterly 
hated scoffers and infidels, and if any appeared at the 
table where he dined, he rose and left. 


78 BUILDERS OF sD ER @HoRGr 


Books of Erasmus.—To the thoughtful man the Chris- 
tian movement must have been very perplexing in the 
year 1500. The medieval church was great in its might. 
Erasmus saw the papacy gaining in the temporal power 
which Hildebrand had asserted. Petty squabbles usurped 
the throne where formerly the spirit of the living Christ 
had reigned supreme. As Erasmus studied he came to 
some very unusual conclusions which he expressed in his 
many books. In one volume entitled Enchiridion he 
asserts that popular religion has degenerated into noth- 
ing but superstition. Christians even resorted to worship 
Rochus in order to drive away the plagues from their 
bodies, while others indulged in many fasts to the honor 
of the god Apollonia to rid themselves from the pain of 
toothache. Some went so far as to gaze for long periods 
of time at the image of the divine Job for the purpose of 
being liberated from the itch. This farce was mercilessly 
flayed by this scholar. 

Another book entitled Colloquies showed how deeply 
Erasmus prodded into the facts of life. Here he shows 
with what a malice he hated all forms of war. With 
brilliant vividness he pictured the recklessness with which 
men enter war; the extravagance and resulting poverty 
are shown up; the debauched walk before the reader, 
together with the sick and poor wretched soldiers. Re- 
markable indeed is the coming of this lightninglike- 
minded man from the Dark Ages with his pronounce- 
ment against war. He was many years in advance of his 
day. 

In Colloquies are also chapters on such themes as 
courtesy, the soldiers’ life, the uneasy wife, rich beggars. 
Reuchlin, who lost caste with the church because he de- 
sired to better the Hebrew text of the Bible, was be- 
friended by Erasmus in this work. He was pictured as 
a Hebrew scholar who died and was welcomed to heaven 
by that orthodox saint, Jerome, and later without the con- 
sent of the Pope was made a saint in the church! These 


oe " 


STRADDLING A MORAL ISSUE 79 


writings of Erasmus were widely read, with the result 
that the people were set thinking upon the condition of 
the church and its defects became more outstanding. 

The Praise of Folly.—The book, however, for which 
Erasmus is most remembered, and which made a pro- 
found impression, was The Praise of Folly. In this im- 
mense work Erasmus made a skillful and penetrating 
attack upon some of the fundamental ideals of his day. 
We have not said much about the “New Learning,” 
which was supported by Bernard and Peter Abelard and 
which came to its highest expression in Thomas 
Aquinas. This new learning was in its early days an 
attempt to put reason and logic into the religious life 
of the church, and as such was to be commended. It 
was an effort to keep out of the mire of superstition, 
and as such was a great advance. But, like other good 
things, it became abused and degenerated into a lot of 
small talk about the great themes of the Christian way of 
life. In The Praise of Folly Erasmus takes these school- 
men to task. With cutting irony he shows how they 
argue about such themes as: Could God have assumed the 
form of an ass when he came? Could he have been like 
a cucumber or a flint stone? Was the Virgin Mary well 
educated and learned in many languages? 

Before he was through he asserted that Popes, bishops, 
theologians, monks, lay Christians—all were grossly in 
error respecting the forgiveness of sins. That the wor- 
shiping the sacred relics, such as a thigh bone of some 
saint, or a piece of the cross of Jesus, or the lock of hair 
to be cured of illness or other physical defects; the habit 
of selling indulgences to get money for the papacy, which 
custom would fain make the believer think his sins were 
forgiven for pay, was sheer nonsense—all of this was un- 
covered and condemned with brutal frankness by this 
man of insight. The church could not go on forever act- 
ing thus and survive, and Erasmus knew it. 

Condemnation of Pope.—In this same work the 


SO BUILDERS OR TE Ch URGE 


papacy came in for its share of condemnation. The | 


Pope, said Erasmus, in the midst of a swarm of “advo- 
cates, secretaries, notaries, mule-drivers, grooms, and 
money-changers,” cannot possibly live a life like that of 
Christ. And still Erasmus was no reformer in the sense 
that Huss or Savonarola was. Said he, “I have no de- 
sire that the primacy of the Roman See should be 
abolished, but I would that its discipline favor every 
effort to promote the religion of the gospel. For several 
ages past it has openly taught things that are plainly 
averse to the doctrines of Christ.’’! 

Monasticism criticized—From the days of Atha- 
nasius to be a monk was to hold a position of honor. 

Erasmus, because of experiences in his early days, 
hated this institution. From personal knowledge he knew 


many monks to have degenerated into folly, vice, and — 
superstition. A small order called the “Collationary — 


Fathers” went about looking up promising prospects for 
the monasteries, and when a likely youth was discovered, 
its representatives did what they could to get him for 


one of the various orders. Erasmus declared it was their © 


business to net proselytes, catch superior lads, frighten 


them, beat them and crush their spirits, threaten them — 
and so break them into the proper state of docility for — 


the cloister. 


With words mightier than blows he described monks — 
saying: “The greater part of them have such faith in © 
their ceremonies and human traditions that they think — 
one heaven is not reward enough for such great doings | 


—one will show his belly stuffed with every kind of fish; 


another will pour out a hundred bushels of psalms; an- © 


other will count up myriads of fasts, and make up for 
them all again by almost bursting himself at a single 


dinner. Another will bring forth such a heap of cere- | 
monies that seven ships would hardly hold them; another — 
boast that for sixty years he has never touched a penny — 


*Schaff, Vol. VI, p. 412. See Suggested Readings. 





STRADDLING A MORAL ISSUE 81 


except with double gloves on his hands. . . . But 
Christ will interrupt their endless bragging, and_ will 
demand, ‘Whence this new kind of Judaism? ” 

Ignorance in a great mind.—Though Erasmus wrote 
so many learned books, and though scholars came from 
all over Europe to talk with him and upon their return 
home were able to say, “I have talked with the great 
Erasmus,” still in one world this man was but as a babe. 
He never truly realized the great inner struggle which 
most men go through while bent upon the fight for self- 
conquest. Though he could write so skillfully and sar- 
castically about the weaknesses of other men, he seemed 
to understand little about the strength of God. He never 
seemed to really get to the bottom of life and know what 
sin truly was. When he speaks of that universal miracle 
of all being—salvation—he appears shallow. He never 
realized just how low men could drop and what a tre- 
mendously loving and forgiving God was needful for 
raising them up. The “cross” and all it symbolizes was 
more a theory than a vital experienced fact. 

Here was the weak spot in the building of Erasmus’ 
personality: he had a great intellect, but too little experi- 
ence of God. A great mind is needed in the world of 
religion; but cleverness alone will not do. Something 
finer must be added. 

A moral straddle——tThis flaw of character proved 
more conspicuous as Erasmus grew older and led to a 
greater weakness. A great storm was brewing during 
the entire youth of this scholar. He saw the clouds and 
to a certain extent welcomed the rain. There were 
mutterings among the people. The power of the papacy 
was more and more being questioned. Finally the storm 
broke, and what Huss did not live to see, Luther ac- 
complished. At first Erasmus and the great reformer 
were very friendly, for they both had this much in com- 
mon: they were earnest critics of the church. When, 
however, Erasmus saw that Luther was drifting toward 


82 BUILDERS (OF CUE GCEUaRGis 


a break with the authorities, he chose the path of quiet- 
ness and ease, and chose to have nothing to do with this 
militant leader. The man who might have elected to 
have become a scholarly prophet decided to remain 
simply a scholar. When questioned by his superiors re- 
garding his relationships with Luther, he refused to bear 
any responsibility for the Reformation zeal. He let 
Luther go it alone. 

Opposition to Luther grew into bitterness. When, 
later, the Peasants’ War came on, he denounced Luther 
as an antichrist, and finally gave up all correspondence 
with Luther’s friend, Zwingli. Once, when pressed by the 
Elector Frederick of Saxony to give his opinion of Luther, 
this scholar who had the knack of never committing him- 
self to any person or any cause said, “Luther has com- 
mitted two sins—he has touched the Pope on the crown 
and the monks on the belly.” He never seemed to under- 
stand the depths of truth involved in the Reformation 
and flippantly spoke of it as the tragedy or, rather, the 
comedy which generally ended in a happy marriage. 
How he missed out! 

Erasmus will ever be the vivid example of that type of 
man who owns a commanding intellect, but who has not 
the spiritual courage to use it in behalf of a great moral 
cause. His theories were stronger than his bravery. 
Though he felt that the papal bull against Luther and his 
followers was foolishly harsh, still he would not move. 
And when the Reformation won, it won without him. 
He straddled a great moral issue, and because of it has 
ever heard the reproach of men. 

And this “playing safe” did him no good. Shortly 
after his death the Pope placed every one of his books 
upon the Index List and no loyal members of the church 
were to read them. Pope Paul IV—whose good will 
Erasmus coveted so much—called him a notorious heretic 
and declared his writings were to be kept on this List 
“even when they contain nothing against religion or 


STRADDLING A MORAL ISSUE 83 


about religion.’”’ The man who hedged found that even 
his friends finally rejected him. 

Last days.—Thus as the feeling between the papal and 
antipapal party ran high, this man aged and with the 
coming years suffered more and more. A writer of 
wretched Latin tells us that he died “sine crux, sine lux, 
sine Deus”’—without cross, without light or without God. 
So great was his pain and so intense his weariness of life 
that during his last hours he continually repeated the 
prayer, “O Jesus, have mercy—Lord, deliver me—Lord, 
make an end.” And the gracious Father of the dis- 
tressed finally answered his cry and he fell asleep. 

With all his faults and weaknesses Erasmus was a 
Christian and a-great man. He criticized the church he 
loved so well and made plain her sins. But when one re- 
views his stupendous abilities for leadership one often 
forgets the Erasmus which was for the Erasmus which 
might have been. No man of any generation can face a 
great challenge and a mighty opportunity and deliberately 
reject it without inner deterioration and an outward loss 
of worth in the sight of his fellows. 


Stupy Topics 


1. Describe the educational advantages of Erasmus and indi- 
cate the ways in which his superior preparation was an advan- 
tage to the Christian movement. 

2. What was the attitude of Erasmus toward the papacy? 
toward the church? What factors in the ecclesiastical situation 
of that day greatly influenced Erasmus’ attitude toward the 
papacy and the church? 

3. Discuss the status of monasticism in the days of Erasmus. 
What factors inherent in the monastic system were chiefly 
responsible for its disintegration? 

4. How many educators of the present day become builders 
of the church? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 
Schaff, Philip—History of the Christian Church, Vol. VI, pp. 


390ff. 
Lindsay, T. M.—A History of the Reformation, Vol. I, pp. 
172ff. 


GEA Di hea 


MARTIN LUTHER—A PROPHET WITH A 
GREAT LIGHT 


Wuat Erasmus shrank from doing Martin Luther 
gloried in accomplishing. 

Born in the little town of Eisleben in 1483, this boy 
grew acquainted with the hardships of a hard-working 
miner’s home. He was flogged much by a hardened but 
well-meaning father, while at school the teacher ham- 
mered the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer 
together with other similar information into the young 
boy with a birch rod. On one morning he was beaten not 
less than fifteen times. Such treatment made him timid 
and served to cast a gloom over his entire youth. 

To complete his education he was sent to Magdeburg, 
and so biting was his poverty that he used to sing with 
other students out on the streets to obtain a crust of 
bread. A kindly Frau Cotta once heard his voice, was 
won by his appearance, and took him to her home, where 
he had more time for study. Comfortable was this home, 
graced by the presence of so noble and motherly a lady, 
and it furnished Luther with a view of life which never 
left him. In 1501 he entered the University of Erfurt, 
where he studied the dry stuff of theology and philosophy 
and it was here that he first came across a copy of the 
Latin Bible, which set his thoughts traveling in new 
channels. 

Luther, much to the disappointment of an enraged 
father, determined on his becoming a lawyer, resolved to 
become a monk, bade his friends farewell, and entered 
the monastery of Saint Augustine. Here dreadful inner 
agitations beset him, forcing him to doubt whether he was 


84 


PROPHET WITH, GREAT LIGHT 85 


saved from sin. In anguish of spirit he sought out the 
noble John Staupitz, who presided as rector, and this 
great-hearted man told Luther that God was never angry 
with men who did their dead level best. Luther was 
advised to trust God, and go bravely forward. Starting 
out in this way, he found inner peace of mind. 

It was common in those days for devout monks to 
make pilgrimages to Rome, and in 1511 this privilege 
came to Luther. After much hardship in crossing the 
Alps, the plains of Italy were sighted and when a little 
later the “Eternal City’ rose up before these weary 
travelers, Luther, overcome by emotion, cried out, “Hail, 
thou Holy City!” and fell upon his knees in awe and 
reverence. Four weeks he remained in Rome and saw 
at close range the greed, superstition, and vice of peo- 
ple and clergy. His soul revolted at the irreverence of 
the monks who jested when they performed mass, and 
in the Latin which the people could not understand 
poked fun at the Eucharist while the service was going 
on. This kind of religion gave his soul no peace and 
again aroused the old restlessness of spirit. Shortly 
after his return home Luther entered the University of 
Wittenberg as teacher and from 1512 to his death held 
that position. , 

The ninety-five theses—Luther had gained great 
peace of mind for himself without the help of the church. 
God and he had come to a meeting point. But as he 
looked about he could not but see how longingly others 
groped after that which he had obtained. The Roman 
Church had decreed that there were only three ways of 
obtaining forgiveness of one’s sins: contrition of the 
heart, confession to a priest, and satisfaction. To make 
God and his church satisfied one must go upon a pilgrim- 
age, offer many prayers, pay fines, or do other deeds 
of penance prescribed by the priests. This teaching 
was grossly misused and exploited on every hand. 

On account of the splendor and wealth wasted at the 


86 BUILDERS OFSPHE CHURGH 


papal court the papacy was poor. Money was needed to 
complete and adorn the new and stately cathedral of 
Saint Peter’s, in process of building. At this time Al- 
brecht, Archbishop of Mainz—a very young man who 
also was very poor because he had spent so much money 
maintaining the pomp and glory of a sumptuous court— 
entered into an agreement with the Pope whereby some 
added revenues should be gained both for the court of 
Rome and of Mainz through the use of the above de- 
scribed “penitential system” of the church. To folks 
who had sinned “indulgences” were to be sold, which 
at a given price would bestow upon them forgiveness of 
sins; and of the money thus obtained Albrecht was to 
have one half and the Pope the other. Quite forgetting 
how unlike Christ this way of procedure was, a Domini- 
can monk named John Tetzel, a splendid speaker and 
popular collector, was authorized to go throughout Ger- 
many selling indulgences to all people who would buy. 
This gifted priest, Tetzel, asked the priests to preach 
the benefits of buying indulgences before he came to their 
towns—as though money would buy a transformed per- 
sonality and an enlightened character! When he arrived 
in any town it was as a special messenger from the Holy 
Father, the Pope, bringing salvation. Church bells rang, 
clergy, magistrates, and school children met Tetzel out- 
side the city gates. It was like a modern Fourth of 
July. A large red cross emblazoned with the papal arms 
headed the procession, and the papal bull was exhibited 
upon a velvet cushion; then came Tetzel and his com- 
panions on white horses dressed in beautiful vestments. 
The money chest was set up. By putting certain sums 
into this chest the people were told that sins committed 
and contemplated would be forgiven. A slip of colored 
paper was the receipt—a certificate of indulgence. As 
soon as the money rattled in the box the soul for whom 
the money was paid ascended from the dreadful flaming 
purgatory to the bliss of heaven! All the people under- 


PROBED WITHSGREADILIGHT 87 


stood that if you paid a fixed price, you could do anything 
you desired and keep out of hell. 

Luther was angered. When he preached against sin 
and lust, confirmed persons of ill repute calmly showed 
him their tickets of indulgence and demanded from him 
as a priest in the Roman Church an absolution. To be 
sure, streams of gold were flowing in this manner into 
the Roman treasury; but Luther well knew that not 
money, but morals, righteousness and the mighty will- 
to-do-right were the only facts that made forgiveness 
of sins possible. 

Luther raised his voice in his pulpit against this 
nuisance, and when he found this was not enough, wrote 
out ninety-five theses—a common practice in those days 
—nailed them to the door of the castle church in Witten- 
berg and invited all to gather for a great disputation. 

Many who were thinking in secrecy about what Luther 
had written openly, now came forward to take part in 
the discussion. Reuchlin, that aged Hebrew scholar, 
said, ““Now the monks have found a man who will give 
them full employment.’ That man was Luther. ‘Oh, 
some drunken German has written them; as soon as he is 
sober again he will speak differently,’ said the Pope. 
Still the sleepy, stupid church had not waked up. 

Opposition to Luther’s theses.—In August, 1518, 
came an order summoning him to Rome to answer 
charges of heresy. Sixty days were allowed for the 
journey. But the Elector of Saxony sided with Luther. 
The Pope, through the influence of the Elector, finally 
consented to permit Luther to be examined at Augsburg. 
It is very strange to note that on his way to Augsburg 
Luther was thoroughly humiliated and felt that his con- 
duct had brought disgrace upon his parents! While on 
the journey he continually shed tears because of this. 
Arriving too late, the trial did not take place. 

Luther excommunicated.—The papacy showed it- 
self utterly ignorant of the state of mind extant in north- 


88 BUILDERS ‘OF DHE GHURCH 


ern Europe, and finally the bull which was to split the 
church in two was issued. It was violent to the last 
degree. Even the gentle Erasmus thought it uncalled 
for. 

Luther was not scared. He called this edict a “cursed, 
impudent, and devilish bull.’ He flayed the papacy, 
saying, “If this bull has gone forth in your name and 
with your knowledge, and you acknowledge it, I exhort 
and admonish you in the Lord to repent and make an 
end of the diabolical blasphemies, and that, too, speedily. 
Unless this be done, know that I, with all who worship 
Christ, will regard you as possessed of Satan and as the 
accursed abode of antichrist, whom we not only cannot 
obey, but must detest as the chief enemy of Christ.” Not 
within a thousand years had the papacy been rebuffed 
in this hale style. 

At first the papacy was stunned, then great fury laid 
hold of Luther’s opponents. He was summoned to attend 
the Diet—a council meeting at the city of Worms. 

The Diet at Worms.—His friends advised him not 
to go. “You will be treated as was Huss, who also held 
a ‘safe-conduct,’” said they. George Spalatin urged 
him not to attend, but this doughty warrior replied, 
“Christ lives, and we shall come to Worms in spite of 
all the gates of hell and powers of the air.” His neigh- 
bors reminded him of Huss and Wiclif, and he made 
answer, “I shall go to Worms even if there were as many 
devils as tiles on the roofs.” 

The trial began. Luther plainly was embarrassed in 
the presence of so many dignitaries, and especially the 
emperor. When confronted by his printed books he 
asked for an added day in which to prepare his defense. 
His confusion and hesitancy made his enemies jubilant. 
Now he was giving way. The Pope would triumph. 

The following morning the trial continued. The man 
who should have confessed his sin, meekly have consented 
to have gone to Rome to become tinder for another stake, 


PROPEHED WUE AGREAE LIGHT 89 


was present—but how changed! After much interroga- 
tion he flung back his head and stated: “I cannot and 
will not recant anything, since it is unsafe and danger- 
ous to act against one’s conscience.” Great anger and 
confusion were let loose. For a time pandemonium 
reigned. Luther was again thoroughly frightened and 
embarrassed, but we are told that when pressed again 
to recant, he uttered through lips that were white: “Here 
I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.” 
Neither council, nor diet, nor Pope, nor bull could pre- 
vail against a man so honoring his conscience. 

A little later on, entering Wittenberg in the midwinter, 
the following celebration took place: Out in the square 
were a host of students standing about a great bonfire. 
Luther was there. A slight-built monk stepped out from 
among their number, cast a piece of parchment into the 
fire and as it curled and burned with the heat said, “‘Be- 
cause thou dost trouble the Holy One of Israel, may 
eternal fire consume thee.’ So amidst the uproar of 

~ applause on the part of students and faculty, this bull 
from the papacy was burned. 

The letter to the German nobility.—Three classes of 
the people were with Luther in his struggle. Naturally, 
the followers of Huss—and they were many—sym- 
pathized. The humanists who were objecting to the 
shackles of the older school—such men favored this 
step toward freedom; and the knights, who were becom- 
ing increasingly poor as trade and commerce increased, 
and who disliked to see papal legates enter their domain 
and carry out money by means of selling indulgences— 
these sided with the reformer. 

In 1520 Luther wrote his famous “Letter to the 
German Nobility,” in which he attacked the papacy as 
being harmful to the national government of Germany, 
and continued by urging the German princes to stand to- 
gether and achieve a strong national government. So 
popular was this writing that four thousand copies and 


go BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


over were sold within a few days—an unheard-of 
quantity for that epoch. This publication brought 
Luther what Huss lacked—the hearty support of the 
princes and electors—and because of this he was able 
to withstand the power of the papacy successfully. 
Shortly afterward he wrote his other great tract entitled 
“The Babylonian Captivity,” and in this attacked the unt- 
versal power of the Pope and the sacraments of the 
church. He claimed they should be reduced from seven 
to two. This went into many editions and convinced men 
that the papacy had no right to temporal power. It is of 
interest to know that Henry VIII of England, that king 
of unsavory moral repute, who was later to break with 
the papacy, attacked Luther for writing this, and was 
granted by the Pope the title “defender of the faith” 
—a title which the British sovereign wears to this day. 

The Bible—Luther’s friends feared for his life, and 
in secrecy he was spirited away to Wartburg Castle, 
where none could find him. While in hiding he con- 
tinued his studies of Greek and Hebrew, and in Novem- 
ber, 1521, began his famous translation of the New 
Testament. This edition was not based upon the stiff 
vulgate version, but upon the text completed by Erasmus. 
Within five months it was finished. It was an immense 
piece of work. Luther’s love for the common people 
made him understand their language, and so here was a 
book both accurate and yet understandable. It was 
written in street language. At a very high price, over 
five thousand copies were sold in less than three months. 
This was a wonderful achievement and beyond Luther’s 
fondest desire. Later the Old Testament was completed 
and the entire Bible received with equal acclaim. 

Even Cochlaus, a supporter of the Pope, wrote, 
“Luther’s New Testament was so much multiplied and 
spread by printers that even tailors and shoemakers—nay, 
even women and ignorant people who could read but 
little—studied it with greatest avidity as the fountain of 





PROPHET WITH GREAT LIGHT gi 


truth. . . . Within a few months such people deemed 
themselves so learned that they were not ashamed to dis- 
pute about the faith and the gospel, not only with Catholic 
laymen, but even with priests and monks and Doctors 
of Divinity.” 

Luther faces fanaticism.—While Luther was hidden 
away in Wartburg, his friend Karlstadt went to great 
extremes. He abolished mass, threw images from the 
churches, took down pictures, and did away with the 
robes worn by the priests. Confession was abandoned 
and he preached that celibacy was no longer required of 
the clergy. Indeed, he went further and stated that no- 
body could be a pastor without a wife and children! 
Learning was renounced and unnecessary for a Chris- 
tian, and Karlstadt took to farming! In the town of 
Zwickau things went to even greater extremes. 

In meeting these situations Luther forever showed his 
true greatness. He went to Zwickau, and so great was 
his preaching ability that more than twenty-five thou- 
sand people came together to hear him as he preached 
from the window of the city hall. When he went to 
Orlamunde during the trouble of Karlstadt, as soon 
as the people heard he had come they left their midday 
harvesting and flocked to the church to hear him. In his 
historic “Eight Sermons” he denounced foolishness in 
Christianity in very plain and very earnest terms. 

Luther’s second great contribution to the Reformation 
was his exaltation of preaching. The sermon was made 
the great event of the service. He found the pulpit de- 
graded. Much of the preaching consisted in telling cheap 
stories and indulging in much buffoonery for the enter- 
tainment of the people. Indeed, this nonsense was carried 
so far that the hilarity which prevailed customarily at 
Easter was commonly called “Easter laughter.” Luther 
changed all of this. 

Marriage.—Although Luther’s friend, a lawyer named 
Schurf, knew “the whole world would laugh,” and though 


g2 BUILDERS OPSTHE CHURCH 


Melanchthon thought him “roped in by some shrewd 
nun,” yet Luther determined to marry. Kathrina von 
Bora, a young nun who had run away from a convent, 
was to become his bride. They lived in the old Augustin- 
ian monastery at Wittenberg, which was now deserted. 
Luther’s home life was very beautiful. It rebuked for- 
ever the Catholic attitude toward woman of his day which 
degraded her and suspected her. He showed his honor 
for all womankind in his marrying and having a happy 
family of six children. One of the most delightful of all 
Christmas carols is that “Away in a Manger,” with the 
words and music written by Luther for his own chil- 
dren. By word and deed Luther sought to persuade men 
that the highest achievement attained by any Christian 
was that of a happy home filled with happy children. 

First called Protestants—The Pope had a sorry time 
of it. War arose. The struggle continued, but this 
“heresy” throve. At the Second Diet of Speyersric 
princes opposed to Rome brought in this formal pro- 
test: “In matters pertaining to God’s honor and our soul’s 
salvation every one must stand and give an account of 
himself before God.” And because of this attitude the 
reformers were here first called ‘Protestants,’ and such 
they have remained until this very day. 

In this newly formed. Protestant church anybody could 
preach. Mechanics, sextons, or teachers—all who were 
touched by the Spirit of Christ could preach. 

The last days.—So great were his burdens that this 
mighty warrior aged early and was an old man at fifty. 
His nerves were on edge and he made many enemies in 
his latter days. Luther’s was a hasty but kind spirit. 
Henry VIII called Luther an “ugly, bleating lost sheep,” 
and Luther was as able to reply, “If the king of England 
is at liberty to spit out his impudent lies, I am free to 
thrust them back again into his throat.” Others urged 
him to be more lenient in his words, but he would “not 
follow the advice of politicians.” 


PROPHET WU GREAT EIGIL. 93 


Yet this man was the soul of kindness. None who 
came to him for help did he turn away. And even to 
Tetzel, his arch enemy, who lay upon his deathbed, 
Luther wrote a very beautiful letter. 

But the day came when he lay down for his final 
sleep. Pastor Jonas bent over the dying man and said, 
“Reverend Father, do you die in the faith of your Lord 
Jesus Christ, and in the teaching which you have preached 
in his name?’ After a calm silence and clear as the tone 
of a bell at eventide came the answer, “Yes.” And God 
took him. “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall 
make you free.” For this freedom Luther lived and in it 
he died. 


Stupy Topics 


1. What influence did Luther’s first visit to Rome have upon 
his attitude toward the church and the papacy? 

2. Describe the custom of “indulgences” and contrast it with 
Jesus’ teachings concerning forgiveness. 

3. What was the cause and significance of Luther’s “ninety- 
five theses”? 

4. Describe the “Diet of Worms.” What did it accomplish for 
the cause of Protestantism? 

5. How did Luther’s translation of the Bible into the vernacu- 
lar aid the spread of Christianity? Why is popular education 
essential to the success of any great reform movement? 

6. Describe the early status of Protestantism, showing how it 
differed from the Roman Catholic Church. Discuss briefly 
the spread of the Protestant movement to Switzerland, France, 
and England. 

7, Summarize Luther’s contributions to the church. How may 
a reformer of the church be at the same time a builder of the 
church? 

SUGGESTED READINGS 
Nuelsen, John Louis—Luther the Leader. 
Singmaster, Elsice—Martin Luther, The Story of His Life. 


Houghton Mifflin Company. 
Schaff, Philip—History of the Christian Church, Vol. VI, pp. 


o7ff. 
Lindsay, Thomas M.—A History of the Reformation, Vol. I. 


CHAPTER X 
JOHN KNOX TAKES UP THE TORCH 


Wuat was kindled and fanned into flame by Luther 
and Melanchthon did not burn out at their deaths, for 
another generation of men was being born believing in 
the same ideals. It was of great significance that no 
one of the outstanding reformers stood in want of a 
college education. 

John Calvin——While Luther was making trouble 
there was born, in 1509, in the town of Noyon, France, 
John Calvin, who was sent to the University of Paris. 

Nicolas Cop, a keen-minded rector of the university, in 
one of his public addresses made an attack upon the 
Pope. Calvin thoroughly supported Cop and was forced 
to flee from France for his life. Arriving in Basel, he 
set to work upon a work intended to embody the entire 
Protestant idea of thinking and doing things, and this 
work was published as The Institutes in 1°36, when Calvin 
was little over twenty-six years of age. This masterful 
work is still one of the great classics of history. Calvin 
was invited to Geneva, where the Protestants were hav- 
ing a very hard time, for their brave leader, Zwingli, 
had been recently killed in battle and they were in grave 
danger. Here he lived for the most of the remainder 
of his life. 

So valiant a leader of the reform did Calvin become 
that eventually he was recognized as the head of the 
Protestant Church in Scotland, Poland, Hungary, the 
Rhine Valley—in fact, wherever the English or Luther 
were not in control. What Luther started, Calvin 
carried more radically through to the end. 

Scotland.—Scotland was in a very unhappy condi- 
tion. Her history up to this time was a tale of un- 


94 


THE: TORCH INv SCOTLAND 95 


scrupulous barons, assassinations, and a kingly authority 
was on the verge of extinction. There was a sort of a 
feudal parliament called the Estates of the Realm which 
was exceedingly autocratic. The middle class of peo- 
ple were very much dissatisfied, for they knew what was 
going on in Germany, France, and Switzerland. Their 
Old Celtic Church formerly had given them every educa- 
tional advantage, but when Rome assumed control many 
years before, education had been neglected and the people 
had just sense enough to know that they were being 
downtrodden and neglected. Scotch students traveled all 
over Europe seeking knowledge they could not obtain at 
home. 

Luther’s writings were smuggled into the country and 
eagerly read. Tyndale’s Bible was brought up from Eng- 
land. Severe laws were made to prohibit this, and peo- 
ple carrying Bibles were to be severely punished, while 
ships caught conveying them were to be forfeited to the 
government together with all their cargo. 

The discontent grew, however, despite all the church 
and the royalty could do to stop it. Patrick Hamilton, 
who had studied at the University of Paris and then at 
the University of Louvain—recently burned to the ground 
by the Germans—came back to his native Scotland only 
to be burned at the stake for teaching his new view of the 
gospel. The wood was green, the fire slow, and his 
death was prolonged in a most cruel manner. Cardinal 
Beaton—a most hardened and unscrupulous man—was. 
in power, and the Pope appointed him to read the bull 
of excommunication against King Henry VIII of Eng- 
land, who had now drawn away from Rome. 

Matters were finally brought to a head when George 
Wisehart, a very devout preacher of the gospel, was 
Durned at the stake after ‘a’ farce of a trial at. Saint 
Andrew’s Castle in 1546. A certain John Knox was with 
Wisehart during all his travels, carried a sword and stood 
by Wisehart’s side when he preached, lest any should 


96 BUILDERS’ OF Tbs CHURGH 


attempt to kill him. When Wisehart was burned, Knox 
barely escaped, and the boldness of this teacher made 
him vow that he would never give in until every follower 
of the Pope was driven from Scotland. 

John Knox.—Very little is known about the early life 
of John Knox. The date of his birth is uncertain, but 
probably 1513. He was born into an ordinary home, for 


some time was a teacher, and was later ordained a priest. — 


While reading the 17th chapter of Luke’s Gospel, about 
having “faith as a grain of mustard seed,” he was con- 
verted and determined to cleanse the church in Scotland. 
Things were in a sorry plight. “The bishops and priests 
took concubines, and ate and drank and were drunken 
and buffeted their fellow men.’ They exacted fees from 
the poor and ever took the best cow at the death of a 
parishioner. | 

Becoming more interested in religion, he took a trip 
to Geneva to see the great Calvin, and from the first 
meeting to his death was a loyal follower of that great 
leader. On all major matters where Calvin led there 
Knox was sure to follow. 

The first great sermon in Scotland.—Returning from 
Geneva, Knox determined to bring the same gospel to 
Scotland. The common people were ready to revolt at 
any time, and soon Saint Andrews Castle was captured 
and served as a place of safety for all those who dared 
oppose the Pope. Since Knox had been a marked man 
ever since the days of Wisehart, he was, much against 
his inclinations, persuaded to enter the castle, where 
he began preaching. His first sermon was a stinging 
rebuke to the papacy for all its evils, and mercilessly he 
flayed the Pope. This one sermon at once placed him in 


the front ranks of the opponents of the Catholic forces. — 
His hearers said he preached with such enthusiasm and 
violence that it seemed as though “he would break his 


pulpit in pieces and fly out of it.” 
The galley slave-——The Scottish royalty were at that 





THE TORCH IN SCOTLAND 97 


time in league with the French court, which was 
thoroughly Catholic. This friendship soon brought a 
French fleet, which speedily battered down Saint 
Andrews, and all the protesters were taken to France. 
Because the French king lied Knox was sent to a galley, 
there to serve as a slave, where for nineteen months he 
experienced a living death. All day long he was chained 
to a bench with four or five other slaves, and while he 
rowed with all his might, the overseer walked up and 
down and lashed him often and at will. At night the 
chains were not removed and he slept either on his bench 
or on the hard floor under it. Porridge of oil and beans, 
with barely enough nourishment to keep one alive, was 
his food, and all about him were the vilest of criminals. 

Knox never forgot this experience. “How long I con- 
tinued prisoner, what torment I sustained in the galleys, 
and what were the sobs of my heart, is now no time to 
recite: This only I cannot conceal, which more than one 
have heard me say, when the body was far absent from 
Scotland, that my assured hope was, in open audience, 
to preach in Saint Andrews before I departed this life.” 
But despite this and the severe illness which came to him, 
Knox’s will was unbroken. Once his enemies gave him 
a little wooden statue of the Virgin Mary and asked him 
to kiss it. He threw it into the sea exclaiming, “Let us 
see if she can swim and take care of herself now.” 
Finally the English king interceded for these prisoners 
and Knox was permitted to sail for England. 

Knox preaches in England.—Upon his return Knox 
began preaching in England, and for five years he taught 
the sovereignty of God and the regality of the gospel. He 
was minister in Berwick, in Newcastle, and finally in 
London, where his repute became so conspicuous that 
eventually he was obliged to consider the offer of the 
bishopric of Rochester which he declined. 

Soon matters changed. Mary Tudor, called by the 
inelegant name, “Bloody Mary,’ came to the throne. 


98 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


Most of the Protestants immediately left England, though 
Knox stayed as long as possible. So fearless and out- 
spoken, however, was he, that he rebuked a crowd of 
Catholics and was forced to flee for his very life, and in 
secret arrived in Switzerland again. 

“Lords of the Congregation.”—While Knox was 
absent the Protestant forces in Scotland did a typically 
Scottish thing: the nobles and barons gathered together 
and formed a mutual protective alliance, whereby they 
solemnly promised to protect and defend each other even 
at the cost of their own lives. This band so connected 
was called the “Lords of the Congregation” and was the 
first definite organized expression of the protesting spirit 
in Scotland. 

Knox evidently considered that the time was now about 
ripe for battle and returned from Geneva to Perth. At 
Perth, Knox preached one of his mighty sermons de- 
nouncing the mass, and a terrible mob rose. His words 
were like a match to the kindlings. Monasteries were 
sacked and churches destroyed. “The places of idolatry 
were made equal with the ground; all monuments of 
idolatry that could be apprehended, consumed with fire; 
and priests commanded, under pain of death, to desist 
from their blasphemous mass.” 

The Revolution.—The queen and the Catholic party 
sought the aid of the French and the Protestants sought 
for aid from England. The middle classes—the mer- 
chants and the farmers—were with Knox, as also were 
the barons. Little blood was shed, and when the English 
support so much needed arrived, the Revolution was 
over. 

No sooner was this short war won than the Scottish 
Parliament set about bringing in by means of law the 
Reformation. Led on by Knox, this Parliament abolished 
the Pope’s power in Scotland, repealed all former laws 
favoring Catholics, forbade the celebration of mass, and, 
in fact, made the will of the reformed church so auto- 


JHE TORCH: IN’ SCOTLAND 99 


cratic that Scotland was thought of as a theocracy like 
Judzea of old. The church ruled the state for the time 
being, and, as one wag said, “Knox is king.” 

Mary Queen of Scots.—Just as affairs seemed to be 
running fairly smoothly Mary Queen of Scots returned 
from France, a young widow at the tender age of eight- 
een. She was rich in beauty and charm and poor in 
morals and ethical procedure. She determined to bring 
Catholicism back to the land. At one time it seemed as 
if she would win, but she never for one moment fooled 
Knox. This old warrior was summoned no less than 
five times into her presence. He was blunt as usual, 
lacked modesty, and perhaps was guilty of egotism, for 
at the outset he plainly told her that he enjoyed living 
under her sovereignty just about as much as Paul enjoyed 
living under Nero! He rebuked the young queen to her 
face for violating the law of the land and permitting a 
French priest to celebrate mass in her household. 

His relations with the queen were very unhappy. Knox 
never liked queens. “More howling and tears above that 
the matter did require’—this is the way in which he 
described his interviews. 

And Mary made clumsy mistakes. First, she proposed 
marriage with the son of that arch enemy of the Refor- 
mation Philip II of Spain; then she married a youth of 
about eighteen years of age named Darnley, who was 
killed when somebody set gunpowder under his house. 
For this the queen was blamed. Immediately after this 
gunpowder crime she married another lord. This list 
of deeds, together with plottings against the Protestants, 
so angered the common people and the lord, that, with 
the approval of Knox, she was deposed and fled to Eng- 
land, where she later plotted against Queen Elizabeth, 
and for this was beheaded. 

The Confession of Faith—vVictory having been won, 
it was needful to conserve its fruits, hence a constitu- 
tion was drawn up for the newly established Protestant 


100 BUILDERS ¥O BEG EEO 


faith in the form of a confession called by an unusually 
long name—The Confession of Faith and Doctrine, Be- 
lieved and Professed by the Protestants of Scotland. 
It started off in a more human and beautiful manner than 
do some of the older religious statements: “Long have 
we thirsted, dear Brethren, to have notified to the world 
the sum of that doctrine which we profess and for which 
we sustained infamy and danger; but such has been the 
rage of Satan against us and against Christ Jesus his 
eternal verity lately now again born amongst us, that to 
this day no time has been granted unto us to clear our 
consciences as most gladly we would have done.” And 
then the Scotchmen set about to “clear their consciences.” 

This document asserted that the church was not within 
the state, neither was the king the ruler of the church—as 
with Luther. Indeed, Knox followed Calvin and asserted 
that the “voice of God” controlled the state and was 
heard in the church. Reader, elders, exhorters, and 
deacons were provided for and were responsible to the 
people for their election and also to God. It was a 
democracy to which Luther did not succeed in attaining. 

Knox the man.—Knox was no genius, as that word 
is commonly used. Professor Preserved Smith, with 
some justice, says of Knox that he was “a born fighter, 
a man of one idea who could see no evil on his own side 
and no good on the other; as a good fighter and a good 
hater he has few equals.” But if he was thus bitter, can 
one not forgive him on recalling his experience as a 
galley slave? The bitterness with which Knox was 
filled was drunk out of a cup kept brimming by the 
Catholics. Yes, Knox was very human. When Darnley, 
the second husband of Mary Queen of Scots, foully mur- 
dered her Italian secretary, David Riccio, Knox called 
it “an action worthy of all praise.” 

But John Knox had some vital convictions. He be- 
lieved that no man in whom the work of grace had been 
begun by God could fail to be saved. He simply could 


THE TORCH IN SCOTLAND IOI 


not lose the battle of life, for God the Almighty would 
see him through. 

Knox also felt that the church was governed by officers 
called inwardly by God and outwardly by the people. 
This meant that the officers were not self-sufficient but 
were absolutely dependent upon the people for their 
office, and therefore thoroughly subordinate to the people 
for all that they did. This was a long step in the direc- 
tion of a democracy which was none too rife in the 
church. 

The last triumph.—Knox did not feel called to gird 
himself for the Reformation until nearly forty years of 
age. Now that the queens and regents had been faced, 
and the church established in Scotland, this old warrior 
was beginning to feel need of rest. 

We will let Thomas Carlyle tell of his last moments: 
“This prophet of the Scotch is to me no hateful man! 
He had a sore fight of an existence; wrestling with 
Popes and principalities; in defeat, contention, lifelong 
struggle; rowing as a galley-slave, wandering as an exile. 
A sore fight, but he won it. ‘Have you hope?’ they asked 
him in his last moment, when he could no longer speak. 
He lifted his finger, ‘pointed upward with his finger,’ 
and so he died. ‘The letter of his work dies, as of all 
men’s, but the spirit of it never. One more word as to 
the letter of Knox’s work. The unforgivable offense in 
him is, that he wished to set up priests over the heads of 
kings.” 

As they laid Knox away, all who knew him best 
assented to the truth uttered in the cemetery by the 
regent, Morton: “Here lieth a man who in his life never 
feared the face of man.” He had carried high his torch. 


Stupy Topics 


1. What contribution to the Christian movement was made 
by John Calvin? What influence did Calvin have upon the 
life and work of John Knox? 


102 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


2. Describe the early stages of the Reformation in Scotland 
and indicate the causes lying back of the movement. 

3. What political factors in Scotland preceding and during 
the years of the Reformation helped or hindered the work of 
John Knox? 

4, Contrast the methods of Reformation in Germany with the 
Revolution in Scotland. Discuss the relative effectiveness of 
evolutionary and revolutionary reforms. 

5. Who were the “Lords of the Congregation” and what 
organized expression did they give to the Reformation in Scot- 
land? 

6. Discuss Knox’s attitude toward women. Was he or was he 
not justified in his position? Give your reasons. What is the 
attitude of the church of the present day toward women? 

7. What were the essential tenets of the Confession of Faith? 
In what ways did it differ from the current beliefs held by the 
Roman Catholics? 

8. Summarize the character of John Knox. What were his 
essential contributions to the building of the church? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Smith, Preserved—The Age of the Reformation, Chap. VII. 

Lindsay, Thomas M.—A History of the Reformation, Vol. 
PeeChapanvil 

Carlyle, Thomas—Heroes and Hero Worship, Lecture IV. 


PUSHING BACK THE HORIZONS 


at 





CHAPTER XI 


BUGOPGRO LIU Sa Witt) “DEDICATED A. 
DRILGCIANTY MIND TOn THE GHRIS- 
TIAN MOVEMENT 


To be considered a great man in the world of affairs 
at the young age of eighteen is a most unusual event in 
history, and yet this is just what happened to Hugo 
Grotius. 

Born in the city of Delft of a Dutch mother who was 
a loyal member of the Roman Catholic Church, this boy, 
at the age of seven, was studying Greek and Latin, and 
ere he was eleven years old had entered the famous Un1- 
versity of Leyden, where he took all kinds of courses, 
including mathematics, science, religion, and law. His 
father was a Frenchman named Cornets; but one of the 
conditions upon which he married the mother of Grotius 
was that he should take her family name—Groot—and 
renounce his own. This was done, and his son Hugo, 
liking Latin much better than the inelegant sounding 
Dutch, soon wrote his name “Grotius,’ in which form 
it has come to us of the present day. 

University life—While still at the university Grotius 
was privileged to attend the court of Henry IV at Paris, 
where the oldest son of the king desired to give him the 
files Private Secretary ito. the) Prince.” Grotius, felt; 
however, that he should return to his beloved Holland, so, 
honored with a picture of the king and many other royal 
gifts, he left the court. 

The life of the lawyer.—The more people learned 
about Grotius the more they marveled at his great learn- 
ing, with the result that in 1598 the University of Orleans 
bestowed upon him the title of “Doctor of Laws,” and in 

105 


106 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


1599 he returned again to Holland and placed his name 
upon the roll of lawyers, after which he was to be found 
pleading important cases of law before the highest courts 
in the land. 

His marriage.—Serving a few years as official his- 
torian, Grotius married Mary von Reigersbergen, who 
came of an illustrious family and whose father was a 
burgomaster. She was a clever and sagacious woman, 
and remained devotedly loyal to Grotius in the many 
troubles which later came into his life. Perhaps the 
greatest tribute paid to her was that, “throughout her life, 
she was always worthy of her husband.’ She was the 
splendid mother of six children—two of whom died in 
youth—and provided for Grotius a very happy family 
life. 

The Arminian Controversy.—While Grotius was liv- 
ing in Leyden a very noted man named Arminius was 
teaching theology at the university. He fell into an argu- 
ment with another professor named Gomar, concerning 
the teachings of John Calvin. Arminius differed with 
Calvin in many points and felt that each Christian who 
used his will power had the freedom to work out his own 
salvation, with the help of God. ‘Calvin had taught that 
God chose whom he would for future happiness and con- 
demned all whom he would to future torment—and this 
dispute caused much bitterness of feeling. 

In 1609 Arminius died, and Grotius, who had loved 
and admired him, wrote a beautiful tribute of apprecia- 
tion at his death. Riots sprang up because of the bitter 
feeling in the controversy referred to, and Prince 
Maurice, looking for an opportunity to increase his own 
personal power, took sides against Grotius, and there- 
with the trials and tribulations of this great scholar began. 

The arrest of Grotius——Since Grotius was in the 
opposition, Prince Maurice had him arrested. How 
trivial was the beginning of this entire matter! A man 
arrested for teaching that one could work out his own 


DEDICATING A BRILLIANT MIND 107 


salvation! Another great statesman, Barneveld, to- 
gether with the noble Hoogerbeets, were arrested with 
him. 

The prince evidently had a hard time bringing anything 
against Grotius, and so stated that he was arrested be- 
cause he had accepted a bribe from the hated Spaniards 
who were the sworn enemies of the Dutch States—a 
deliberate falsehood. 

Loyalty of Grotius’ wife.—But there was one who 
could answer all these charges, and that was Grotius’ 
wife. She stated to all who cared to listen that her hus- 
band “had no secrets” and that his life in public as well 
as in private had been an open book. All winter Grotius 
remained in prison, where the windows were nailed up 
and boards kept out both light and air. The confinment 
was telling upon his health, and it seemed as 1f the poor 
air might bring on tuberculosis. Though citizens of 
Amsterdam, Delft, and Leyden were incensed that their 
famous citizen should be thus confined, their anger was 
in vain. 

Ledenberg, the secretary of Utrecht, a fellow prisoner, 
could not stand the strain; his nerves snapped, and he 
committed suicide. But Grotius kept on. His wife never 
gave up. Repeatedly she wrote letters to him in the 
following strain: “Never have I lost courage in your 
and my case. I know your character. I know the con- 
science which you have always shown in this and other 
matters.” 

Grotius seemed to have kept up his courage while 
awaiting trial by writing letters and other documents. 
He composed a short poem for his little daughter Cornelia 
to learn and then completed a book entitled A Short 
Instruction for Baptized Children. 

Death of Barneveld.—But affairs did not look bright, 
and one of the men who were on the side of Grotius, 
Barneveld, was tried. It was a very unfair trial, and 
with vaguest of accusations he was condemned for being 


108 BUILDERS OF Liib GEUhGr 


an enemy of the state, and though seventy-two years of 
age, was beheaded. Great anxiety for Grotitis existed 
among his friends, but his wife militantly continued 
exhorting him to remain firm. 

Trial of Grotius—-On May 18, 1619, an old friend 
entered his room and told him to prepare for trial. There 
was no jury, no opportunity for defense; in fact, it was 
a shameful farce of a trial. Together with Hoogerbeets, 
this great Christian was condemned to perpetual im- 
prisonment and any estate which either of these men 
might possess was declared confiscated. A_ beautiful 
letter to his wife showed that Grotius was still unde- 
feated. It is so noble that it should be given in full. 


Most BELoveD: 

That I have not written to you before was because it was 
better so. Next to God nothing consoles me more than to re- 
ceive tidings from you frequently. I am worried about your 
health, especially over the pain in your side. I long to see if 
everything is well with the children, also with my father and 
mother, your mother and other friends. My sleep is satisfactory, 
praise God. My stomach is a little better than before. God 
Almighty, who has helped us with his grace so far, will not 
forget to help and to console us. Trust in him and pray and 
give my regards to all our friends. The 21st Sept. 1618. 

Yours always faithfully, 
H. DE Groot. 


In addition to this, Grotius wrote a letter to Prince 
Maurice which was moderate in its tone—but never re- 
ceived any reply. So with hearts resigned to their fate 
and with much gratitude that their lives were spared, 
these brave men, Hoogerbeets and Grotius, prepared to 
spend the rest of their days in the gloomy fortress of 
Loevestein. 

Loevestein.—What kind of a place was this fortress 
called Loevestein, wherein Grotius was incarcerated at 
the age of thirty-six? An old feudal castle built upon a 
promontory of land where the Meuse and Waal Rivers 
meet, and so constructed that water was on three sides 








DEDICATING A BRILLIANT MIND 109 


while a strong, high wall guarded the fourth, behind 
which were several inner walls, a double moat, a draw- 
bridge, and an arched tower for the watchman. Back 
in the old Norman times was this place built, and be- 
cause of its location and bareness the nobility no longer 
required it for living purposes but relegated it to the 
state for the purposes of a prison. To this place in June 
5, 1619, was Grotius brought. 

‘Two families in prison.—Grotius’ wife, however, was 
determined not to be separated from her husband and 
made so much “to-do” about it that finally permission was 
granted for Hoogerbeets and Grotius to take their fami- 
lies with them to Loevestein. Little difficulty is experi- 
enced in picturing a mother and four children, giving 
up voluntarily their freedom, in order to stay with their 
father and keep the family intact. 

The plan of Grotius’ wife-——Mary von Reigersbergen, 
the wife of Grotius, was a very resourceful woman, and 
having plenty of time to meditate, insisted that her hus- 
band should never spend his entire life in this beastly 
prison. In the little town of Gorcum, about two miles 
from the prison, lived a family by the name of Daatselaer, 
whose members were interested in scholarship and who 
loaned Grotius many books during his incarceration. 
Though Daatselaer was a ribbon and thread merchant, he 
gladly took charge of any books which friends living afar 
might wish to loan Grotius and at regular intervals for- 
_warded them to the prison. Twice each week Mary von 
-Reigersbergen made a trip to Gorcum, and it was not long 
before she was on most intimate terms with this kind 
family whose members showed such hearty sympathy 
for the great scholar. Each time the great case or trunk 
_ which held the books arrived at the castle the lieutenant in 
charge would open and inspect it, to see that nothing of 
a secret nature was going through to the prisoner. But 
as the event becarne so regular, this vigilance was relaxed 
and the inspection was finally discontinued. 


IIO BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


Why could not Grotius use this chest for escape? The 
thought flashed into the mind of his wife and was im- 
mediately put into action. The chest was about three 
feet long and it was found that by carefully doubling 
himself up, Grotius could just about squeeze into it. 
Tests were made and it was found that he could remain 
in the chest with his faithful wife sitting on the cover 
“while the hourglass ran out twice.” 

Elsje van Houwening.—After seeing the possibilities 
of escape, Grotius’ wife became even more friendly with 
Mrs. Deventer, the wife of the jailer, who was inclined 
to be a little more courteous than her husband. Visits 
were made to the Daatselaer family to secure their co- 
operation in the event that Grotius should put in an ap- 
pearance in their midst. And finally Elsje van Houwen- 
ing, their maidservant, who was trusty and wonderfully 
courageous, though only twenty years old, agreed to 
make an attempt to get away from the prison with the 
box of “books,” which this time was to contain the person 
of Grotius. 

The escape.—‘‘I should like very much to send away 
a trunk full of books,” said Mary to the wife of Deventer 
one day when the jailer was away on duty. “My hus- 
band exhausts himself so with study that I can bear it no 
longer.” So the chest holding Grotius was made ready 
and the brave Elsje set forth with its precious contents, 
for Grotius’ wife had kissed him and locked him in the 
box. The soldiers were called, half carrying, “halti 
dragging and with great labor they finally got it down- 
stairs and through the thirteen doors which were always 
kept so securely bolted. Four times on the way one 
soldier declared that Grotius himself must have been in 
the chest, it was so heavy, and only the fact that no air 
holes were found allayed their suspicions. One soldier 
thought to get a drill and bore a hole into the box and 
prove a man was within, but the quick-witted Elsje 
turned him aside with her jokes. 


DEDICATING A BRILLIANT MIND III 


The box is not opened in the fortress.—Finally the 
last door was reached and the grumbling soldiers asked 
the commander’s wife if the box should be opened. Elsje 
quickly remarked that it held heavy books and her 
mistress had told her to take the books to Gorcum. So 
busy was this lady that she had no time for inspection 
and ordered the books to be taken to the ship. But 
Elsje’s troubles were not over. The captain of the little 
boat placed a light plank from shore to ship and Elsje, 
fearing that it might break with the weight of the chest, 
would not embark until another stronger one was brought, 
else she would “have all those costly books dropped into 
the river and lost.’”’ When at last going down the river, 
Elsje waved her handkerchief toward the castle—which 
was to be the signal that the escape had been thus far 
successfully made—Madame Grotius seeing the sign, fell 
to her knees and to herself uttered the brave words, ‘Go 
on, my husband, and may I never see you again unless in 
freedom.” 

On the river toward Gorcum the water became rough 
and Elsje asked the captain to strap the chest to the boat 
lest it slide off into the river and its contents be ruined. 
An officer then came and sat upon the lid and drummed 
with his heels upon the box. Realizing this would annoy 
her master and that any added weight upon the cover 
would serve to make it tighter and keep out the much 
needed supply of air, she approached the officer and asked 
if he would kindly get off the box. “You will break the 
very valuable porcelain it contains if you continue: drum- 
ming,’ said she while the officer complied with her re- 
quest. 

The box is opened.—After many adventures, Gorcum 
was reached and the box safely placed upon the floor of 
Madame Daatselaer’s kitchen. “Master,” cried Elsje 
before putting the key to the lock, but there was no an- 
swer. Then louder, “Oh, my Master is dead.” Madame 
Daatselaer, who was in the room, remarked, “Your mis- 


112 BUILDERS } GRMEHE (CHURGH 


tress has not done wisely; before she had a living hus- 
band, now she has a dead one.” But Grotius, who heard 
the conversation, remarked: “No, I am not dead. I 
did not recognize the voice.” With haste the cover was 
lifted, and the man who had lain almost doubled within 
the box for over two hours rose as a dead man from the 
grave. Quickly he was dressed in a large straw hat and 
overalls to look like a brick mason and escorted to Ant- 
werp, where he. was lustily greeted and welcomed as a 
free man and a hero to be honored. 

Soon Madame Grotius followed—for there was no rea- 
son to keep her in confinement despite all the hubbub 
which followed the hue and cry when the prisoner was 
known to have escaped. Prince Maurice, when advised 
of the escape, was forced to admit: “I thought they never 
could keep him in prison, for he was wiser than all his 
judges.” 

And what happened to Elsje, the girl who so loyally’ 
stood by her master and made his escape possible? ‘The 
romance ends in gladness. She remained a friend of 
Grotius as long as he lived, married his butler, and—as 
the romance would finish it—lived happily ever after. 

Residence in Paris——Undoubtedly, you have read the 
story of the Wandering Jew—well, that is akin to the 
life of Grotius from now on. He nevermore dwelt in his 
beloved Holland. As quickly as new clothes could be 
procured, Grotius left Antwerp for Paris. Traveling 
incognito, he at last reached the city and was royally 
welcomed. 

Not long after his arrival his wife came with the 
family, the king granted him a pension, and his household 
was set up in the city of Paris. Times were exceedingly 
difficult, for frequently the pension was late in coming, 
and at one time no money came in a space of two years. 

Cardinal Richelieu—Many nations desired the serv- 
ice of Grotius because, as we shall later see, he had the 
distinction of being one of the greatest statesmen in all 


DEDICATING A BRILLIANT MIND 113 


the world. The powerful Cardinal Richelieu offered 
Grotius a most lucrative position if he would enter 
French service. Grotius wrote a letter to his brother at 
this time in which he said, justly: “The labor I have 
spent in order to make known to all our people the honor 
and glory of Holland well deserves, I think, that they had 
sent me a ship in which to come home, even as the people 
of Athens, in former times, did for Demosthenes for a 
lesser service. . . . A noble heart must do nothing 
through fear’; and, refusing to be cowed by poverty, he 
firmly declined to take advantage of Richelieu’s invitation. 

Sweden.—Later the Prince of Holstein and afterward 
the king of Denmark asked Grotius to enter their serv- 
ice. At length Queen Christina of Sweden invited him 
to become her ambassador at the court of France, and, 
realizing that the door of beloved Holland would remain 
closed to him for many years to come, Grotius reluctantly 
renounced his Dutch citizenship and entered the service 
of Sweden. At the court of Louis XIII he was the most 
brilliant ambassador. 

The rights of war and peace.—In 1625, after many 
years of hard labor in prison, away from home, wander- 
ing, he published what was to be his greatest work—The 
Rights of War and Peace. When this was published, 
~ such wicked men as Machiavelli and Czsar Borgia were 
handling statecraft in Italy, while that “cat,” Philip II 
of Spain, together with Tilly and Wallenstein, matched 
the Italians in evil. Secret diplomacy, trickery, deceit— 
these were the tools of a successful diplomat, and is it 
any wonder that Europe was being forever plunged into 
carnage and bloodshed? 

Grotius stood in the face of all this and advocated 
justice and truth. He reviewed the past laws and noted 
their failure. ‘The state had failed and the church had 
failed. Now he called upon men in this momentous work 
to begin all over again and make another start. He called 
for open diplomacy, and said that in the place of the 


114 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


present system of things there should be instituted some- 
thing which in his day was very radical. Grotius was | 
one of the first to champion this cause and with real | 
justice has been called the “father of international law,” 
and his great work has become one of the classics of all 
time. | 
The United States honors Grotius.—A little over | 
ten years ago there was a great gathering in the famous | 
old Nieuwe Kirk in Delft. Beside the princes of Orange | 
was the grave of Grotius. After many long addresses, 
the ambassador of the United States stepped to the grave 
of Grotius and laid thereon a wreath wrought in gold. | 
It was the tribute of a great nation to a great lawyer and | 
a noble Christian for the services he had so well rendered | 
in behalf of international law. | 

When men of brilliant intellect commit their lives to- 
the church, when they withstand persecution, when they 
think large ideals such as that of international law, when 
they keep leavened with humility—such men build 
foundations so strong that many storms come and the 
church cannot fall. The church is what it is to-day be- 
cause of such a builder as Grotius. 





Stupy Topics 


1. Describe the early life and education of Hugo Grotius and 
indicate their later influence upon his part in the Christian 
movement. 

2. What was the Arminian controversy? In what form does 
it persist in present-day Protestant denominations? 

3. Tell the story of Grotius’ imprisonment at Loevestein and 
his sensational escape. 

4. Discuss Grotius as a statesman. To what principles did he 
hold most tenaciously and with what results in European politics 
and in his own personal affairs? 

5. How may a statesman be a builder of the church? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Vreeland, Hamilton—Hugo Grotius. 
Butler, Charles—Life of Hugo Grotius. 





Chua tL BR TT 


LOYOLA AND THE FOUNDING OF THE 
SOCIETY OF JESUS 


ALONG the wall of Pamplona the battle raged furiously, 
and it seemed as if the small garrison of Spaniards would 
still be able to hold their fortress despite the tremendous 
superiority in numbers of their French opponents. 


| Hotter and hotter waged the conflict, and just when 


victory seemed within grasp, a great, round, rusty, solid 


- cannon ball struck the commanding officer and completely 


shattered his leg. This officer who fell, so severely 
wounded, was none other than Inigo Lopez de Recalde, 
a member of the noble Spanish family of Loyola, and 


among all his comrades this youth of but twenty years 


had been the only one who dared lead the Spanish army 
against the French in defense of the city. 

When the enemy found him, buried under a great pile 
of dead and in an almost dying state, they were so filled 


with admiration for his boldness that everything pos- 


sible was done to make him comfortable, and for the next 
two years his life was one of battle for health and 
strength. 

The struggle to remain a soldier—As Loyola’s leg 
knit, he saw it would not carry him into battle, and he 
had it broken and reset, not once but many times, to 


make it straight and strong. The agony of so many 


operations upon a shattered leg must have been severe 
beyond description in days when no ether could be ad- 
ministered to dull the pain, yet so great was Loyola’s 
determination that it was borne bravely—alas! without 
success, and finally without hope. A cripple he was and 
a cripple he would remain until the end of his days. 


DiS 


116 BUILDERS‘ OP WITTE CH URGE 


Reading the life of Christ—During this long sick- 
ness so low did Loyola’s vitality become that a priest 
was fetched, and for the first time in many, many years 
this youth took the sacrament. Beginning to recuperate, 
he took to reading. Ludolphus of Saxony had written 
a very popular Life of Christ, which, together with a 
book by an unknown writer entitled Flowers of the 
Saints, was in great vogue. The sick soldier read both 
of these, and determined to leave the regiment and enter 
the church. 

During his reading he had discovered that militant pas- 
sage which Paul wrote to the Ephesians: “Put on the 
whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against 
the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh 
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, 
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against 
spiritual wickedness in high places’; and, seeing he could 
no longer continue a knight in the world of arms, he 
resolved to follow Christ and become a knight of the 
spirit. Instead of a woman of noble birth for his choice, 
as was the custom in those days, he would select none 
other than that noble lady, the Virgin Mary herself, and 
she would be the one honored by his victories. 

Self-mortification at Montserrat.——Having made this 
decision, Loyola went to one of the little churches near 
his home, kept an all-night vigil, in the morning gave his 
horse and silken clothes to a beggar who passed that way, 
and with staff and the long russet garb of a vagrant, set 
out upon his journey to the Abbey of Montserrat. 

Later he moved to the Dominican Monastery at 
Manresa, where he subjected himself to the severest disci- 
pline. After scourging himself daily three times, fasting 
until his life was in actual danger, contemplating casting 
himself from the high window of the cell where he was 
tarrying and destroying his life, and praying again and 
again the prayer, “Show me, O Lord, where I can find 
thee; I will follow thee like a dog, if I can only learn 





THE SOGIRTY VOL SE SUS Li 


thy way of salvation’—after all of this he threw him- 
self upon God at thirty years of age and found peace. 

Loyola’s need of an education.—As soon as Loyola 
had given himself into the care of the church he desired 
immediately to start a mission and traveled all the way 
to Jerusalem in order to minister to the Turks and win 
them for Christianity. His zeal proved very embar- 
rassing to the Franciscans, who were carrying on a work 
in that city, and Loyola became so persistent in doing 
the wrong thing at the wrong time that the Franciscan 
chief at last felt obliged to ship him back to Italy. He 
was persona non grata in Palestine. 

Loyola was not slow to discover that his greatest need 
was a deeper and more thorough mastery of life’s essen- 
tials, and he zealously flung himself into the work of 
securing a better education. Though a matured man, not 
for a moment did he hesitate to humble himself by attend- 
ing the Latin Boys’ School at Barcelona. 

Life at the University of Paris—Having finished his 
course at the Latin School, he set off for Paris and 
arrived at that metropolis, his donkey laden with books. 
In 1528 he entered the College Montaxigu, a part of the 
great University of Paris. And it is very significant to 
note that just at the time when Loyola entered this 
famous place of learning, John Calvin, who played so 
conspicuous a part in the Reformation at Geneva, was 
leaving. As Calvin, a strong man, was withdrawing his 
support from the Catholic Church, another mighty man 
was about to throw his unusual personality on the side 
of this same church. What Catholicism lost in Calvin 

she found in Loyola. 
' Loyola counted his time not wasted which he gave so 
unsparingly to the winning of the confidence of his fellow 
students. He was constantly analyzing their characters 
and weighing their merits with a view to finding out how 
much use they would become to the church. Upon dis- 
covering a fellow student who might eventually develop 


118 BUILDERS: OF THE) CHURCH 


into a great asset to the church he took time to play 
games, especially billiards, with such an one and even 
paid the college expenses of others. When once he had 
their entire confidence and love he broached his plan to 
them, which was as follows: 

They were to join themselves together under a promise 
to go to Jerusalem, after their graduation from college, 
and there care for the ill and the distressed; or, in case 
this was against_the wish of the Pope, they were agreed 
to go anywhere and do anything which the Holy Father 
would prescribe. 

Nine men vowed to support each other mutually in 
such a program, among whom are found such names as 
Salmeron; Rodriguez, who went later to Portugal; and 
the noble Xavier, who finally went as far as India and 
then to Japan in service to this order which soon was 
to be born. These vows having been taken in one of the 
churches of Paris, Saint Mary of Montmartre, this little 
company went off to dine in celebration of the event. 

The Society of Jesus——Soon after graduation this 
small group of men went to Italy, where they placed their 
plan before the Pope. At this time the papacy needed 
bolstering up in the worst fashion, and the Pope wel- 
comed overtures from any men who would loyally sup- 
port him in his work. Loyola and his followers pledged 
absolute allegiance to the Pope, and after a great deal of 
opposition from Catholics who saw what a menace a 
large and enthusiastic body of men might be, obligated to 
nobody but the Pope and sworn solemnly to obey all 
that he said—after much opposition from men who 
wished to see no added power granted the papacy, 
this company of men was recognized as the Society of 
Jesus and the members of this society were known by 
the nickname, Jesuits. 

This was a new order. It was quite unlike the many 
monastic orders which had gone before, inasmuch as 
Loyola insisted that the members should have no dis- 


THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 119 


tinctive garb, and in its very highest ranks, be limited 
to sixty members. It was military in every sense since its 
founder thought of it as a Holy Militia. Four vows were 
required of every candidate: that he would give special 
obedience to the Pope, that he would give his time care- 
fully to the education of the young, that he would not 
become an ascetic and interested in heaven and such 
things, but be practical and help men in every manner 
possible, and lastly, that he would give unqualified 
obedience to the General of the Order, who was an auto- 
crat in every sense of the word. 

The vow read as follows: “That the members will con- 
secrate their lives to the continued service of Christ and 
of the Popes, will fight under the banner of the Cross, 
and will serve the Lord and the Roman Pontiff as God’s 
Vicar upon earth in such wise that they shall be bound to 
execute immediately and without hesitation or excuses 
all that the reigning pontiff or his successors may enjoin 
upon them for the profit of souls or for the propagation 
of the faith, and shall do so in all provinces whitherso- 
ever he may send them, among Turks or any other 
infidels, to the farthest India, as well as the region of 
heretics, schismatics, or unbelievers of any kind.” When 
this constitution was approved by the Pope in 1541, 
this new order came into being. 

The spirit of the Society of Jesus.—E arly in the his- 
tory of this work Loyola wrote a little book which 
played such an important role in the work of this order 
that we must glance at it. The book is entitled Spiritual 
Exercises. It is really a manual designed for a military 
drilling of the soul, and insists that the reader continue 
in the repetition of certain religious beliefs so very many 
times that the mind will be disciplined and the spiritual 
faculties be quickened. 

From this lonely meditation Loyola hoped the imagina- 
tion of the believer would be quickened and that he would 
actually see his body in hell and that he would actually 


120 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


hear the shrieks and the howlings, that he truly would 
taste the saltiness of the tears and really smell the sulphur 
and the intolerable stench and distinctly feel the scorch- 
ing flames. 

The taste of child life-——Love made him and his com- 
rades minister to those little tots in the city of Rome 
left without either father or mother. Conditions in the 
erstwhile imperial city were appalling and poverty was on 
every hand. Children died rapidly because there was 
none to take care of them. Here Loyola rendered a serv- 
ice of beauty and love. He went about the streets and 
whenever he came across children lonely and forsaken, 
brought them to his own home. He taught them some 
trade or art and when they grew to youth they were able 
to go out into the world and earn their own living. Be- 
fore his death this lover of little children had gathered 
more than two hundred boys and girls into his orphan- 
ages which served also for trade schools. 

Opposition to begging.—At Rome there was much 
begging. Loyola went to the city authorities and asked 
them to make a law which should forbid begging in 
public and make it illegal; furthermore, he urged them to 
create a fund which should help all the worthy poor at 
city expense. One wonders at the sagacity of this Jesuit, 
for his plan contained those fundamental elements which 
are now being practiced the world over in cities of en- 
lightenment for the alleviation of poverty. Roman au- 
thorities, however, refused aid. Loyola remained un- 
dismayed, and established charitable associations which 
should with wisdom and discretion supervise the task of 
aiding the poor. 

Aid given to wicked women.—Very tender and gentle 
this great man grew toward the many wicked women who 
thronged the streets of Rome and who frequently had 
no homes of their own to go to when night came. For 
these women he built his ““Martha Houses,” which in no 
sense of the word were convents. Completely rejected 








Ae ESOC Te Dy, Or GiieS US 121 


' was the ideal of monasticism, and Loyola with his fol- 
lowers lived a more normal type of life; hence for this 
reason he would have no convents, but, rather, bright and 
cheerful homes, where these women could work and earn 
_ in part their own living and get a new start in life. 
| From its very beginning Loyola’s plan attracted hun- 
dreds of people who wished to see the church brought out 
of her rut of uselessness and who again wished to see 
the religious flame burn as warmly as in the days of 
Hildebrand or the martyrs. With this longing for an 
aggressive church which should be so inwardly clean as 
to make it possible for such men as Calvin, Luther, and 
Knox to remain in it, they felt that in the Society of 
Jesus there was the hope for bringing in a new state of 
affairs. 

Interest in education.—All members of the Society of 
Jesus must have an earnest and genuine interest in edu- 
cation. Loyola saw that the undoing of the church had 
been an ignorant clergy unsupported by an equally igno- 
rant laity, and to this he was utterly opposed. Only men 
of culture and refinement were admitted to the order, 
and the schools which were either taken over or set up 
by the Society of Jesus were free to all who would learn 
and became famous throughout Christendom for their 
high standards. Even Protestants who were bitterly op- 
posed to all that the church was doing sent their sons and 
daughters to these schools because in them they could 
obtain the best education. To this very day the Jesuit 
schools are among the best conducted by the Catholic 
Church. 

The spread of Loyola’s inluence.—Because of a reli- 
gious generalship which was nothing short of marvelous, 
this order under Loyola speedily accomplished stupendous 
results. In Portugal the church was religiously luke- 
warm and the famous Xavier together with Rodriguez 
were sent hither. So excellent was their leadership that 
King John soon became their obedient pupil and this land 


122 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


was saved for the Catholic Church. In Spain the task 
was harder because there was much restlessness and the 
Dominicans were strong, but they ingratiated themselves 
into royal favor and, as in Portugal, won a great victory 
by having an ancient university placed in their hands. In 
France the Parliament and the Sorbonne, that renowned 
theological seminary connected with the University of 
Paris, solemnly opposed them; but here they set up a 
school of their own, and France largely remained true 
to the Catholic Church for hundreds of years afterward. 
With Germany there was much more difficulty, for the 
Protestant Reformation was in full swing; yet, not- 
withstanding this, one of the early comrades of Loyola, 
Boabdilla, won the confidence of William, Duke of 
Bavaria, and Bavaria went Catholic. 

Faber, another Jesuit, became very conscious that he 
did not have that kind of a brilliant intellect which would 
match either Calvin or Melanchthon, and when he met 
with them in council they embarrassed him with their 
mental mastery. But he found a convert in Petrus 
Canisius, who was so able that he persuaded the Arch- 
bishop of Cologne not to go over to the Reformation, 
and by becoming intimately acquainted with the ruler of 
Austria saved that land for the church. Had it not been 
for the followers of Loyola, the Protestant reformation 
would have taken many more adherents and lands from 
Rome than was the case. 

Foreign missionary enterprises—Not only was 
Europe again brought back to the papacy, but Loyola 
sent that great disciple of Jesus Christ, Xavier, to India. 
The bravery essential to make such a trip in those bar- 
baric days cannot be overestimated. At once valiant and 
devout, Xavier, taking his life in his hands, was the first 
missionary to India, China and Japan. His efforts, how- 
ever, were destroyed when the Japanese later rose and 
drove all Christians from the land and for two hundred 
years remained pagan. 


THe SOCIETY ORsESUS 123 


It would be well if we could put down our brush and 
cease work upon our picture at this point, for Loyola had 
several weaknesses. 

Although it was no part of his original plan that his 
order should attain to any political power, yet it even- 
tually became one of the most powerful political ma- 
chines in Europe. By a system of espionage Loyola and 
the succeeding Generals knew in detail exactly what was 
going on in every court and city throughout Europe. 
Jesuit spies inspected each other, and even five of their 
number were appointed to watch over the details of the 
General’s life. Loyola himself was continually under 
the surveillance of his mates. 

Loyola emphasized facts most disliked by Prot- 
estants.—F acts most antagonistic to the Protestants he 
gave an important place in his scheme. He gloried in 
giving a slavish obedience to the Pope and exalted the 
papacy to a far higher degree than did Hildebrand. He 
paid so much deference to the Virgin Mary that most 
Protestants have felt that the worship given the Virgin 
took precedence over that given to God. 

Religion to Loyola was first and last a blind unreason- 
ing obedience to the dictates of the hierarchy of the 
Catholic Church, and so when he began to think of his 
neighbor he could not imagine he had any kindness to 
show toward anybody who did not obey the Pope, while 
all who were outside the church were not men but wolves. 

When such ideas are honestly believed by men who are 
not ascetics, but living men full of vitality, it will be seen 
that a real danger is present. During the last days of 
Loyola’s life and very soon after his death, his order be- 
came bigoted and fanatical to the last degree and drew to 
itself the dislike of all men who believe that, without any 
qualification whatsoever, all men are brothers and that 
the Christian is above all else tolerant. 

And what is strange, Loyola, after a very short illness, 
died without asking for a priest or taking the sacrament 


124 BUILDERS OF THE, CHURCH 


of the church—a custom common to every devout 
Catholic. Loyola was loyal to the church; he did a serv- 
ice for it such as has been permitted few others, but it 
was not a free loyalty but, rather, the service—to use his 
own words—‘like that of a dog.” 


Stupy Topics 


1. What influence in the life and environment of Loyola led 
to his entering the work of the church? 

2. Describe the origin of the Society of Jesus. Upon. what 
basic principles was it founded and what demands did it make 
upon its members? 

3. What was Loyola’s attitude toward monasticism and how 
was this attitude reflected in the Society of Jesus? 

4. What three major emphases characterized the activities of 
the Society of Jesus? In what ways were these emphases fore- 
runners of the modern Christian movement? 

5. Contrast Loyola’s attitude toward the church and the papacy 
with the then current Protestant positions. What was Loyola’s 
attitude toward Protestantism? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 
Encyclopedia Britannica—Eleventh Edition, Vol. XVII, pp. 
80-84. 
Gonzales, Luis—The Testament of Ignatius Loyola. 


CHAPTER XIII 


ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE BEGINNING OF 
THE SPIRIT OF TOLERATION 


As Luther and Calvin broke from the state church 
in Europe, even so there arose a body of men and 
women in England who became dissatisfied with the 
state church, thinking that it ought to be “purified.” To 
them was given the name “Puritans.” They were a 
very human folk and true to their convictions, which 
were not at all popular either to royalty or to a middle 
class becoming rapidly richer and richer. For this cause 
they were made so uncomfortable that eventually they 
migrated to Holland, where they enjoyed religious liberty 
under the beneficent instruction of the great pastor, John 
Robinson, and after many years left for the New Eng- 
land coast in that immortal ship, the Mayflower. These 
early Puritan pilgrims had had all they wanted of church- 
controlled governments and determined to have no more 
of it in their new home. 

Boston Puritans.—Later some Puritans who had not 
separated from the state church of England came to 
Boston. In and about Boston they set up a government 
based upon the Old Testament—a theocracy—and stated 
that God was at the head of the state and that the church 
was the controlling power of all said and done within 
the commonwealth. And Mr. John Cotton, a very nar- 
row-minded man, held such influence in this state as to 
be called an “‘unmitred Pope.” 

Arrival of Roger Williams.—Into this exclusive 
atmosphere entered young Roger Williams, a youth of 
about twenty-four years, who came in the good ship 
Lyon from Bristol after a trip of sixty-seven days, and 

E25). 


126 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


who at his landing was called “a godly minister.” Of 
this young man’s early life little is known. He was per- 
haps the son of a tailor living in London, studied law, 
and attended one of the great universities, where he did 
not achieve much honor, as he had the responsibility of 
caring for his widowed mother. 

Soon after his arrival he was invited to preach in 
Boston, but refused because they had not “separated” 
from the state church; however, when the Bostonians 
learned that he believed “‘civil power had no jurisdiction 
over conscience’ they did not press their invitation. 
April 12, 1631, he was invited to preach at Salem, but the 
General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony dis- 
approved of this, and so by the end of this summer one 
finds that Williams had gone to Plymouth, where he 
preached his principle of “soul liberty” and became inti- 
mate with the chief sachems of the Indians, especially 
Massasoit. 

Williams denounced a law recently passed requiring 
men to support and attend church against their wills. 
He was haled into court and tried by a committee of min- 
isters, who recommended that he be banished from the 
colony. It was an easy thing to force a man to go away 
whose truths they could not answer. 

The flight.—John Cotton, who “fined, whipped, and 
imprisoned men for their consciences,” was the leader 
of these days, and although the Salem church called upon 
the other churches of the colony to rebuke the General 
Court for its trial and rebuke of the church’s pastor, still 
so great was Cotton’s influence that the request went un- 
heeded, and in October, 1635, the General Court piously 
quoted some Scripture and gave Williams six weeks in 
which to leave the colony. Since a ship was soon to sail, 
the company determined to send him back to England; 
but he became suspicious, and when they sent officers to 
Salem to get him, his wife and children were found, but 
he had fled three days previously. 


ee 


SPIRIT OF TOLERATION 127 


The founding of Providence——There is nothing more 
terrible than the privations of a bleak New England 
winter, and for fourteen weeks Williams was roaming 
over the wild country between Boston and the shores of 
Long Island Sound. For want of food he weakened, be- 
cause of the cold he nearly perished, the wildness of the 
forests through which he traveled along the Indian trails 
intensified his sufferings, and only because the Indians 
had not forgotten his kindliness and friendship toward 
them when he lived at Plymouth did they befriend him, 
take him into their wigwams, feed him, and thus save his 
life. No man will ever know of those terrible fourteen 
weeks, for Williams never left a record of it. 

In 1636 he came to the place where now stands a 
great city, and, having a vision of what a refuge it might 
become, to all who were persecuted like himself, he called 
it “Providence,’ and made arrangements for settling 
there. Massasoit, the Indian chief, was most friendly 
to him; he would take no payment, but gladly gave him 
the land. Indeed, all the Indians loved him. Twelve 
comrades soon came to live with him, and he generously 
divided the land up into twelve shares and gave it to 
them. He never made any profit out of his real estate 
dealings, for he “desired it might be for a shelter for per- 
sons distressed for conscience.” Later in the summer 
Mrs. Williams, who had not seen her husband for nearly 
half a year, came with her two little babies. 

Government of Providence——Those who settled in 
Providence signed, as was the custom in those days, a 
compact by which they should be governed. The Provi- 
dence Compact was as follows: 

“We whose names are hereunder-written, being de- 
sirous to inhabit in the town of Providence, do promise 
to submit ourselves, in active or passive obedience, to 
all such orders or agreements as shall be made for public 
good of the body, in an orderly way, by the major con- 
sent of the present inhabitants, masters, of families in- 


128 BUILDERS OF THE CHURGH 


corporated together into a township, and such others 
whom they shall admit unto the same, only in civil 
things.’ Here was to be a pure democracy in which 
the state could not violate the inner dictates of a man’s 
conscience. 

The Baptists—AIl kinds of people came to Provi- 
dence. Many were fanatics, many were sound folks 
brutally persecuted. Enemies said Williams was crack- 
brained, “having a windmill in his head.” But neither 
friends nor enemies deterred Williams from his pur- 
pose, and he welcomed all alike irrespective of their 
mental opinions or beliefs. The toil was hard, for “time 
was spent day and night at the hoe and at the oar, on 
land and water, for bread.” The use of the port of 
Boston was denied the citizens of Providence, to their 
great hurt—but they “carried on.” 

In 1638 the Baptists, a new sect who had received 
horrible treatment in Europe and England, sent some of 
their numbers to Providence. They were welcomed by 
Williams. 

The Quakers.—‘‘Quaker” was at first a name of deri- 
sion given to one who belonged to the Society of Friends. 
These Quakers believed in the right of private judg- 
ment, and they also emphatically taught that there was 
an “inner light” which illumined every man and gave 
him the benefit of private inspiration. In the Old World, 
where the ideas of the “theocracy” were all too prevalent, 
this teaching aroused bitterest hatred and courted the 
ferocity of their persecutors, and such was the state of 
mind in Boston because of the teachings of Williams that 
the coming of the Quakers was as much dreaded as a 
pestilence. 

Ann Austin, aged sixty years, with her five children, 
with Mary Fisher, who was thirty years old, first landed 
from the British possessions in the West Indies, and as 
they stepped ashore were promptly arrested and placed 
in the town jail. But the folks of Boston went even 


SPIRIT OF TOLERATION 129 


further, and, under the dread fear that they might talk 
with people and thus spread their teachings, boarded up 
the jail windows, shutting out both light and air, lest 
their heresies should spread. The fear engendered by 
intolerance becomes cruel—and also ridiculous when it 
goes far enough. 

Plenty of bigots still were left in Boston, and Gov- 
ernor Endicott and the Rev. John Norton saw to it 
that three men and one woman were hanged publicly; 
others were branded, many most cruelly whipped, some 
were mutilated by having their ears cropped, and a host 
were imprisoned and fined. Most naturally the Quakers 
looked about them to see whither they might flee for 
their lives and eventually came to Providence, where 
they were welcomed by Williams with the same hospi- 
tality afforded others. 

The New England Confederacy.—Fear of the In- 
dians had inspired Massachusetts, which was then the 
strongest colony, to urge the other colonies in New Eng- 
land to join with her in a confederation for mutual pro- 
tection. Not only were the Indians feared, but it was 
thought possible that the French might make an invasion 
down from the north, or the Dutch come over from New 
York and conquer the land won at such cost of effort 
and life. So the “Confederation” was formed—but 
Rhode Island was left out! 

When Massachusetts saw the welcome given the 
Quakers, in the name of this Confederacy she urged 
Rhode Island to eject these people from her confines, and 
at length went to the extreme of threatening to coerce 
the citizens of Providence to cast out these Quakers. 
Under the influence of Williams, the Assembly of Rhode 
Island returned a spirited reply to the Confederacy, re- 
fusing point blank to oust any persons for religious opin- 
ions they might happen to hold. Then came a veiled 
threat and Williams again wrote, “We have no law 
among us whereby to punish any for only declaring 


130 BUILDERSJORVTIHOE CHeRGH 


words, etc., their minds and understandings concern- 
ing the things and ways of God, as to salvation and 
eternal condition.” 

A great document.—Since most of the colonies had 
passed laws against the Quakers, they threatened to iso- 
late Rhode Island and refuse to give any trade to her in 
case she persisted in this spirit of toleration. It was 
then that the General Assembly drew up in the form of 
a letter one of those immortal documents in American 
history, in which it stated: “We may not be compelled to 
exercise any civil power over men’s consciences, so long 
as human orders in point of civility are not corrupted and 
violated, which our neighbors about us do frequently 
practice, whereof many of us have large experiences, and 
judge it to be no less than a point of Absolute Cruelty.” 

After this declaration, the Confederation ceased its 
efforts to coerce the citizens of Rhode Island, and the 
Quakers together with others were protected in their 
asylum. 

Most remarkable is Williams’ attitude in this entire 
matter when it is recalled that he personally disliked 
the Quakers very much and did not agree with them at 
all in matters of belief. At one time he conducted a 
public dispute with them, and in his zeal rowed thirty 
miles in his boat to meet with them. It was a boisterous 
and stormy affair, and later was moved to Providence, 
where Williams argued with them and debated for three 
long days. Many harsh things were said, and later he 
issued a work nearly four hundred pages long entitled 
George Fox Digged Out of His Burrows. This work 
attacked the Quakers vigorously, for Williams did not 
think them to be right. But nowhere is the true great- 
ness of the man better revealed than in his actions of de- 
fending the right of free religious belief for those with 
whom he had radical differences of opinion. A great 
principle such as toleration was of greater consequence 
than his local difference of thought. 


SPIRIT OF TOLERATION 131 


The new charter.—In 1660, when Charles II was re- 
stored to the throne, Rhode Island was granted a new 
charter which, to the surprise of all, was very liberal in 
its terms and stated that the government should rest 
upon the “free and voluntary consent of all.” For one 
hundred and eighty years this charter held sway, and it 
was not until 1843 that a new one was put in its place. 
The spirit of Roger Williams prevailed, expressed in his 
words, ““We agree, as formerly hath been the liberties 
of the town, so still, to hold forth liberty of con- 
science.” 

While upon this same trip to London he was detained 
by the war then taking place and interested himself in 
the people of London by bringing in firewood and coal 
from Newcastle. He also bared to the English public the 
unjust treatment he had suffered at the hands of the Gen- 
eral Court at Boston. So successful was he that upon 
landing at Boston upon his return home, he carried letters 
from twelve leading statesmen in England telling the 
powers at Boston to permit him to pass safely to Provi- 
dence. 

On another journey, during which he was more than 
two years absent from home, he became acquainted with 
the great John Milton, who was then being threatened 
with the blindness which finally overtook him. 

King Philip’s War.—Though Williams was thus a 
citizen of the world at large, he rendered conspicuous 
service to the people near him. His friendship with 
the Indians lasted throughout his entire life, and in 1654, 
when the Narragansetts were at war with tribes dwelling 
upon Long Island, he used his efforts successfully to keep 
Massachusetts out of the trouble. And a few years later 
when the Narragansetts, who had been quite unjustly 
used by some of the white men, were making preparations 
a second time for combat with all the colonists, Wil- 
liams was urged to intervene and used his efforts to stop 
this threatened war also. When the treaty with the Nar- 


132 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


ragansett League was signed, the Indians first insisted 
that he read the treaty through and sign it, before they 
would take any action, for among all the Puritans they 
had confidence in him alone. 

In the Pequot War, when the colonists won, they took 
the scalps of Indians, sold many of them into slavery, 
and slaughtered the children. And, so far as one can 
observe, Williams was the only man to protest against 
this barbarous custom. 

Massasoit died and his son Philip was not friendly 
either toward Williams or toward the white man, as his 
father had been, and ere long a terrible war broke out in 
which ninety towns were burned and many white men 
slain. All New England was an armed camp. Williams 
converted his home into an armory and at private expense 
built a stockade about his community. 

The attack upon Providence.—After carrying on 
through the length and breadth of the Connecticut River 
Valley, the Indians came to Providence, and twenty- 
nine houses were burned and some of the valuable records 
perished, while the remainder were saved only by throw- 
ing them into a pond near by. 

Nowhere is that remarkable favor which Williams 
held to the very end of his life with the Indians so much 
demonstrated as just before the burning. When the 
Indians appeared upon the heights north of the town he 
took his staff only in hand and went forth to meet them, 
hoping, as upon former occasions, to appease their 
vengeance and counsel them to cease from their designs, 
telling them that the king of England could send over 
many more men to fight them, in case they killed these 
colonists. 

“Well, let them come. We are ready for them,” an- 
swered one of the chieftains. “But as for you, Brother 
Williams, you are a good man. You have been kind to 
us many years. Not a hair of your head shall be 
touched.” But when this most bloody war came to an 


apes 


- tae Sas 


SPIRIT OF TOLERATION 133 


end, Williams still continued to treat those Indians whom 
the whites had enslaved with greatest thoughtfulness. 

Home life.—Besides his wife, there were six children 
in the home of Roger Williams, and from such sources 
as we have, they were most devoted to their parents. 
Though he was high in the councils of state and had 
been very influential, his generosity brought him to want 
in his old age. People who were in worse circumstances 
than himself were befriended, and in this way he had 
given away all his estate and lands and become a claim 
upon his children in his last years. 

Roger Williams’ character.—Very little do we know 
about the personal appearance of this man. He had no 
conceit, neither had he much brilliance of intellect. He 
did conquer Greek, Latin, French, and Dutch. As a 
governor he was nothing exceptional. How, then, can 
one explain his tremendous influence on his day and our 
own? It was his Christianity. Governor Winthrop wrote 
to him toward the end of his life and said, “We often 
tried your patience but could never conquer ouaeuATiCl 
one of his opponents told another that his ideas came 
“from the goodness of his own heart.” 

So unappreciated was this man during his lifetime 
that very little comes down to us regarding his death. 
We only know that at the ripe old age of seventy-eight 
he was laid away with great solemnity at a spot which 
he had chosen, near the place where he had first landed 
at Providence. 

To-day in American life fundamental is the right of 
every man to have liberty of thought—“‘soul liberty,” 
as Williams called it. And so long as that remains we 
may err, but the Kingdom goes on. Only those organiza- 
tions, clubs, sects, and secret affiliations which appeal to 
religious and race prejudice are a menace. They are 
enemies of Christ. And all must enlist to rid America 
of them as of a deadly pest. To-day in the city of Provi- 
dence, now grown great with years, is a lofty statue of 


134 BUILDERS: OF) THR Cr iG: 


Roger Williams. In his arms he holds a book and upon 
the book is written the title “Soul Liberty.” 


Stupy Topics 


1. Explain the meaning of the term “soul liberty” as used 
by Roger Williams. What relation does “soul liberty” bear to 
the Christian movement and the extension of the kingdom of 
God? 

2. Describe the early religious status of New England and 
contrast it with Jesus’ ideals of what a Christian community 
should be. 

3. Describe Roger Williams’ settlement in Providence. 

4. What was Roger Williams’ attitude toward the Indians? 
To what extent was the treatment given the Indians by the early 
settlers Christian or unchristian? 

5. What is the meaning of “religious tolerance’? To what 
extent did the early settlers who came to America in search of 
religious freedom practice among their fellows religious 
tolerance? Is the spirit of tolerance needed to-day? Justify 
your answer. 

6. Describe the essential qualities of character which Roger 
Williams possessed. To what extent are these qualities needed 
in the lives of present-day Christians who would be builders of 
the church? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Straus, Oscar S.—Roger Williams. The Century Company. 
Carpenter, Edmund J.—Roger Williams. 


CHAPTER XIV 


JOHN WESLEY AND THE EVANGELICAL 
REVIVAL 


ENGLAND had passed through the pains of the Puritan 
revival, but had not allowed its nobler spirit seriously 
to enter into her national life, and within a hundred years 
after the Pilgrims had left for America religious affairs 
were about as bad as ever. Within the Established 
Church throve a deep dread of any religious controversy 
—for England had witnessed enough such wrangling to 
last for many generations—and on all sides men cried 
aloud for peace. This attempt to gain religious comfort 
was, however, at the expense of spiritual vitality, for in 
any part of life when comfort comes progress generally 
departs. So it was in England. The church was at a 
standstill. Enemies called it many hard names and 
likened it to “the scarlet lady of Babylon,’ while its 
priests were considered a lot of “pert, airy, coxcombs 
who are the butt of every jest.” 

Life in “Merry England.”—Drunkenness was on the 
increase and taverns advertised to make any man quite 
intoxicated for a penny and to give him enough ale or 
gin to make him dead drunk for two pence with the added 
bargain of furnishing him with a bale of hay upon which 
to sleep in “mine hosts’”’ cellar until the stupor passed 
away. The court, presided over by princes of the house 
of Saxe-Gothe-Coburg—who frequently could speak no 
English—were rough, coarse, and unclean. Dirt and 
poverty in the mining towns were vile. 

Noble clergymen such as Archbishop Secker and 
Bishop Porteus still remind us that there remained in the 
church some men of God. The outstanding and most 


135 


136 BUILDERS OF THE; CHURGEH 


effectual protester against this unhappy condition was 
the eminent son of an odd, poor, and honest rector in 
the church, John Wesley. 

Wesley’s early life—In the little village of Epworth, 
in 1703, there was born a son to the gifted Susannah 
Wesley named John, who thus became a member of a 
family of children which eventually was to number nine- 
teen. His father was an ordinary clergyman, but 
his mother was a genius trained in the strict discipline of 
Puritanism. In this strict, cultured, and happy home this 
boy’s ideals were formed. There were exciting times, as 
when the parsonage burned to the ground and his father, 
ascertaining that all the children had been rescued, called 
the fire-fighters from their work and as the building 
burned, knelt upon the lawn and prayed. 

John was a grave little boy; but though short of stature 
for his age, he possessed most robust health, and when 
he set off for preparatory school he followed the advice 
of his father and ran several miles each morning before 
breakfast about the school buildings to keep fit. Very 
early in years he entered Lincoln College, Oxford, where 
he did good work, showed marked ability in debate, and 
achieved what was a degree of high merit, that of Master 
of Arts, and later was elected a “Fellow” of the college. 

Trip to Georgia—While still in his twenties he took 
a hazardous trip to Georgia for the purpose of converting 
the Indians. The white inhabitants positively disliked 
him, and because of a quarrel he had with a provincial 
character, Miss Sophey Hopky, he was obliged to leave 
the colony in great haste. 

One night in a room in Aldersgate Street, in London, 
Peter Bohler was reading from Martin Luther’s preface 


to the Epistle to the Romans and while Wesley was listen- | 


ing he had a very deep religious experience which he 
described afterward by saying: “I felt my heart strangely 
warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ.” 

Philanthropic interests—While at Oxford he had 


EVANGELICAL REVIVAL 137 


joined “The Holy Club”—which club purposed to clean 
the religious atmosphere of the college and do good to 
people everywhere. The members of this club visited 
the dreadful prisons round about, such as Newgate, 
prayed with the prisoners and spent much money in giv- 
ing them clothes and food. So strict were the rules 
adopted by the members of this club for the governing of 
their personal conduct, and so precise and methodical 
the lives they lived, that many unsympathetic students 
in sarcasm and derision dubbed them ‘“Methodists”— 
which name has stuck to them “even unto this day.” 

The popular ministry.—Seeing that only the rich— 
and very few at that—attended the services of the church, 
Wesley decided to go himself directly to the people with 
his message. It is not incorrect to think of the early 
work of this great man as somewhat akin to that which 
the Salvation Army is attempting to-day, and, like the 
Salvation Army, he received much scorn and ridicule. 
Though Wesley’s sermons were packed full of common 
sense, and though he never resorted to the advertising 
tricks of some modern evangelists, nevertheless the fact 
that this scholarly man in all his personal dignity stood 
upon the street corners of London and talked to people 
about Jesus Christ set all England agog. 

Wherever Wesley and his friends went the story was 
the same—tremendous throngs assembled. Now, some 
of the clergy were a little jealous, and some felt that this 
procedure of outdoor preaching was so utterly undignified 
that they complained to some of their bishops, who in 
turn forbade these Methodists to preach out of doors. 
Some of the bishops prohibited them from preaching in 
the churches. When Wesley desired to preach in his 
father’s church some while after his father’s death, his 
request was denied, with the result that he went out into 
the churchyard, located beside the church, and stand- 
ing upon his father’s tombstone preached Christ to the 
people. 


138 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


Development of opposition.—Wesley and his fol- 
iowers, though they were beloved in some quarters, were | 
thoroughly hated in others. Because they militantly op- | 
posed the excessive drinking of liquor and gambling, the 
tavern-house element hated them, and there came times 
when the clergy of the Established Church united with 
this low class to make the lives of the Methodists miser- 
able. During his outdoor work Wesley was pelted with 
mud, dragged in a canal, a bull was driven in the crowd 
where he was preaching, rotten fish were hurled at him, 
and many times he was bodily injured. The students in 
the college mocked him when he tried to speak with 
them upon religious themes. Mobs rushed upon him re- 
peatedly whenever he tried to speak in unfriendly quar- 
ters, and times without number his services in homes 
were broken up while infuriated crowds rushed in and 
wrecked the furniture. It called for no small amount of 
courage in those days to become a Methodist. 

The nobility hated Wesley because he denounced their 
vices. In one sermon before the learned nobility he con- 
cluded his exhortation to repentance with the phrase, 
“Lord, take us out of the mire, that we sink not.” In 
many places the people threatened to kill this man if ever 
he dared to come again; and generally this was a sure 
means of bringing Wesley to that place for a second time 
—he could not let a challenge in the good name of Jesus 
Christ go unmet. 

The quickening of the people.—During all this while 
Wesley was traveling over the roads of England, preach- 
ing in every little hamlet and village and conversing with 
all people who would allow it, about their sins and graces 
of character. He traveled from Bath to London several 
times each year, went to Scotland and to Ireland, and 
amid great difficulties covered thousands of miles yearly 
on horseback, and in old age in a wagon—a heroic 
feat for those days! With a noble and utter abandon- 
ment he gave himself to this work of saving people. 


EVANGELICAL REVIVAL 139 


Every day he rose at four o’clock in the morning— 
oftener earlier—and after spending a long while in prayer 
and meditation set out upon his busy day’s tasks. He was 
a learned scholar and never let the pressure of im- 
mediate work allow his scholarship to fall to a low level. 
When he was an old man—nearly ninety—it is interest- 
ing to hear him complain that he seriously feared he was 
becoming lazy, for he was unable to be at his work of 
late much earlier than five o’clock in the morning! 

Organization of a great movement.—The genius of 
John Wesley lay in his consummate skill as an organizer. 
Wherever he went he left a small but compact organiza- 
tion. There were classes where the Methodists were 
assembled weekly and instructed about their religious 
life. Those who were trying to keep steadfast in the 
promises they made to God were encouraged; those who 
failed were rebuked. All who would not take seriously 
the business of being a Christian were given one of two 
choices: either to reform or to leave the Methodists. A 
man whose life violates the ideals which he professes 
to love is of no benefit to any church or religious organ- 
ization. 

Once every three months Wesley met with his fol- 
lowers in a conference, and later on the whole move- 
ment met once a year in a large conference at which the 
affairs vital to the movement were discussed. Many 
workers and business men were allowed to preach in this 
organization—a shocking innovation to the “dead 
ecclesiastics’ of those days. These so-called “local 
preachers” were sometimes ignorant, but they were en- 
thusiastic, and Wesley insisted stringently that they 
should spend many hours each day in study and self- 
improvement—thus hoping to overcome their mental 
deficiencies. And soon these preachers went about in 
an orderly and systematic manner from class to class, 
and then from “society” to “society,” supervising the 
work being done and the conduct of the members. This 


140 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


habit of thus “traveling” has remained with Methodist 
ministers to this very day. 

The beginning of a new church.—Most of the Meth- 
odists would not attend the regular services in the Church 
of England, others attended only once each year when the 
communion was served. Wesley wished his people to 
have the benefit of “regular” ministers and to receive 
the communion regularly, and so took it upon himself to 
ordain men of his own to the ministry. This angered the 
clergy within the Established Church beyond measure, 
and widened the breach between it and this new, lusty 
movement. 

Since the Methodists were not welcomed in the Estab- 
lished Church, they built their own places of worship 
—very bare, homely and sometimes uncomfortable places. 
They were called chapels, for it was illegal to name any 
other building a church save that which was used for the 
purposes of the Established Church of England. Hun- 
dreds of these buildings sprang up over England and 
parts of Scotland and Ireland. But with ministers organ- 
ized and with buildings complete, it willsbe easy to under- 
stand how the Methodist. movement became a separate 
church even before Wesley died. Though he himself 
organized and promoted this movement into a distinct 
church, he was never ejected personally from the Estab- 
lished Church, but boasted to the day of his death, “I 
live and die a member of the Church of England.” 

Wesley’s domestic affairs—Many rich and sportive 
people sought Wesley’s acquaintance, but he had little 
time for such. Dr. Johnson said: “Wesley is always 
in such a hurry. I like to sit by the fire, curl my legs 
under me and have my talk out. But just when the 
thoughts become most interesting, this little man looks 
at his watch, jumps up and must be off to speak to 
some poor, ignorant toilers.” Wesley never had a 
vacation. 

Though a man of great personal dignity, this little 


EVANGELICAL REVIVAL 141 


man was very human—very. Wise in most things, he 
was unwise in his dealings with women. He “proposed” 
to three women in his life and narrated the details in his 
journal after the fashion of a stoic. The fourth one to 
whom he proposed was a widow with grown-up children, 
and possessed a violent temper, crowned by a very jealous 
disposition. Wesley married her when quite along in 
years and secretly regretted it most of the remainder of 
his life. It would be delightful to remember Wesley as a 
man with a happy home and some children playing in it; 
but this we cannot do—he never knew what home really 
was after he left that large family circle at Epworth, 
presided over by the gracious Susannah Wesley, his 
mother. 

Mr. Wesley wrote books and many pamphlets. It was 
the custom of his day to attack a person with whom one 
happened to disagree by writing a pamphlet and selling it 
to the public, and the person so attacked had the privilege 
of writing a defense in pamphlet form and placing it upon 
sale. Wesley wrote many defensive pamphlets, and so 
skillfully did he use his pen that he became known 
throughout the world of journalism as a very dangerous 
opponent. In addition to this, Mr. Wesley wrote many 
books upon all kinds of themes; some dealt with religious 
doctrine while others considered history, English, and the 
art of public speech. His now antiquated book upon 
medicine has been mentioned. 

The Wesleyan movement, somewhat akin to Luther’s, 
laid great stress upon song. And though Wesley's 
brother, Charles, is known as the greatest hymn writer 
in the eighteenth century, this fact must not blind one 
from seeing that John Wesley was a poet of no small 
repute. His works are among the sweetest lyrics in Eng- 
lish. Thus out of a busy life came poetry, strong English 
prose, and a stout, written defense of Christianity against 
its subtiler opponents. 

The secret of Wesley’s success.—How can one ex- 


142 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


plain this tremendous vogue which this quiet and humble 
English gentleman has achieved? There are two reasons 
for the fame connected with the name of this man. In 
the first place he lived and taught that God could trans- 
form the lives of ‘bad men and regenerate them into 
different kind of persons. He used to speak much of 
“the transformed life’ and of “the new birth.” And 
there is ever in the human heart a great wistfulness to 
begin over again and live right. Therefore when Wesley 
told his people that they could experience for themselves 
and need take no man’s word for the fact that God could 
forgive their sins, transform their lives, and literally 
ennoble their inner motives, those who heard this truth 
positively and confidently stated, felt that mighty inward 
urge which ever propels men toward God, and started out 
to test for themselves whether Wesley spoke the truth 
or was a liar. And whenever men are willing to test 
God and go out upon the venture after a new life, that 
which they seek they inevitably find. 

In the second place Mr. Wesley believed tremendously 
in education. The “new birth’ was something which 
took place in a moment but which took a lifetime to com- 
plete. He insisted that only intelligent Christians were 
effective Christians. He forever fought ignorance. Out 
of his own funds he established a school for poor chil- 
dren at Kingswood. To be sure, he had but very little 
understanding of child life and commanded the boys and 
girls to rise early in the morning for meditation, to eat 
most simply, pray for long periods of time, and the like. 
Finding that some of the little children did not pray one 
hour each morning, after one of his inspection trips to 
this school, he writes, “I found some of the children 
uncommonly wicked.” But a religion which “experi- 
enced God” and was supported by education was bound 
to grow and become a power, and Wesleyanism has not 
proved an exception to this rule. 

An aged prophet.—John Wesley’s last days were 


EVANGELICAL REVIVAL 143 


crowned with the gladness of victory. As this white- 
haired apostle of the common people went about Eng- 
land folk on all sides sought his blessing and brought 
their little children, that he might lay his hands upon 
them to bless them. As he passed the mark of his 
eightieth year time began to place its sign upon him, but 
he would not give up. Until his eighty-seventh year he 
traveled. One day, however, he was obliged to remain 
in bed. Full twenty-four hours he slept, and upon awak- 
ing he realized that he never again would rise from his 
couch. 

Wesley would not give way to this alarm. He re- 
marked that a religion good to live by was good to die 
by. Though his voice was weak, still he made arrange- 
ments for his funeral services, and so exhausted was he 
after these efforts that he said, “Now we have done, 
let us go.” That very afternoon, as though by supreme 
effort, his voice came, and half raising himself, he pointed 
his finger heavenward and said with emphasis, ‘The best 
of all is, God is with us.” 

All that night he was restless and early the next morn- 
ing, as his friend Joseph Bradford prayed with him and 
was uttering those sublime phrases, “Lift up your heads, 
O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors,” 
this great spirit passed away and ventured out into larger 
realms of action. When he had gone his friends in the 
room broke forth into singing, and they sang with great 
joy, for theirs had been the privilege of knowing that for 
this man death had no sting. 


Stupy Topics 


1. Account for the spiritual decline in England following the 
Pilgrim revival. Why is such a decline apt to follow a period 
of intense religious zeal? Give fitting illustrations. 

2. Describe the home life and early training of John Wesley, 
showing their influence in his later life and work. 

3. What major emphases were employed in the work of John 
Wesley? Discuss Wesley’s power as a preacher. 


144 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


4. Discuss the origin of the Methodist Church and the prin- 
ciples upon which it was organized. 

s. To what extent did John Wesley believe in and employ 
education as a means of carrying on his work? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Fitchett, W. H.—Wesley and His Century. 

North, Eric M—Early Methodist Philanthropy. 

Barr, Josiah—Early Methodists Under Persecution. 

Tucker, Robert Leonard—The Separation of the Methodists 
from the Church of England. 


CHAPTERYXV 
THE GREAT AWAKENING IN AMERICA 


DeEparTING for a moment from the hustling life of the 
academic world such as is found in Princeton University, 
one may go to the college cemetery and there find a monu- 
ment erected to a great theologian “‘second to no mortal 
man.’ Traveling thence to New Haven, Connecticut, 
and entering the beautiful chapel which stands at one 
corner of the stately quadrangle of Yale University, be- 
decked with its elms, the traveler may look at the 
windows of the lovely Battelle Chapel and behold one in 
honor of a “great prophet,” in whom there was a “divine 
and supernatural light.” Two great universities of the 
United States are thus honoring an ordinary man bern 
in an obscure New England village. And how they 
came to do it is the story of this chapter. 

Jonathan Edwards’ start in life-—Jonathan Edwards 
—for that was his name—first saw the light of day in 
the little village of East Windsor, Connecticut, in 1703. 
Plenty of brothers and sisters were in his home, for he 
was number five in a line of eleven children. His father, 
a graduate of Harvard ‘College, received his A.B. degree 
together with his A.M. degree upon the same day—a very 
uncommon mark of respect to his learning. His mother 


was the daughter of Solomon Stoddard, a preacher in ~ 


Northampton, and a man of no mean note. Edwards’ 
mother possessed some very independent traits of char- 
acter, for she refused to “join the church” until her son 
was at least twelve years of age. 

In this thoughtful and cultured home Edwards spent 
his boyhood. He knew of privation. All about him were 
signs of the struggle with the wilderness. Little of 


145 


146 BUILDERS OP eC eri kG 


beauty entered his life. Even the little meetinghouse of 
East Windsor was an unlovely affair—plain, unadorned, 
and not owning even seats for the worshipers; hence the 
people sat on stools which they brought with them or 
else used the window sills. 

So thoughtful a youth as Edwards would never openly 
violate the moral code and would be from earliest hours 
mindful of religion. Because of this Edwards had no 
definite date for his conversion. As a child he often went 
out into the green woods about his home for prayer, and 
he could not stand upon those glorious mountains of 
New England, behold the fleecy clouds whipped along by 
the wind, watch the silver streams rushing and pushing 
their ways through the mountains without becoming 
deeply affected. Never, however, could he put his finger 
upon the point in his life when he experienced “conver- 
sion,” and consequently asserted that his conversion 
began with the dawn of his own consciousness. 

College and the ministry—lEdwards entered Yale 
College when it was a very primitive institution and 
graduated at sixteen, in the year 1719. Receiving his 
diploma, he remained upon the campus and continued his 
studies in divinity, as was common in that day, after 
which he accepted a “call” to a Presbyterian church in 
New York city. Returning from New York, he became 
tutor in Yale for two years, during which time he gave 
much effort to religious thinking, and wrote in his diary: 
“I made salvation the main business of my life.’ On 
January 12, 1723, he wrote: “I made a solemn dedica- 
tion of myself to God and wrote it down; giving up my- 
self and all that I had to God’—and it is here that one 
finds the inner secret of Edwards’ later greatness. 

The new preaching at Northampton.—Soon was 
Edwards called from Yale to toil with his grandfather, 
the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, the rapidly aging pastor at 
Northampton. Mr. Stoddard died shortly, and on Febru- 
ary 15, 1727, Edwards was ordained pastor of the church. 


THE GREAT AWAKENING 147 


It was a very difficult position, for Mr. Stoddard had 
been so long in Northampton that the people made of 
him “almost a sort of a deity,’ and Edwards records 
that “The officers and leaders of Northampton imitated 
his manners, which were dogmatic, and thought it an 
excellency to be like him.” 

A bride at Northampton.—But Edwards did not go 
alone to this field, for his was the fortune to win one of 
the most remarkable women in New England for his 
bride. Sarah Pierrepont came of distinguished ancestry, 
possessed a rare and lustrous beauty both of form and 
features, and was noted for her downright goodness. 
From childhood she had deep piety, proved herself the 
master of a strong character, expressed a natural reli- 
gious enthusiasm, and reflected a type of beauty which 
threw a charm over the severe Puritanism of the day and 
softened it. Edwards first met her in New Haven when 
she was but thirteen years old, and then marked down her 
unique character. After arriving at Northampton he 
became her impatient wooer and urged her to a speedy 
marriage, which took place in 1727, when she was a 
beautiful bride of but seventeen years. 

Mrs. Edwards was beloved by all who knew her, and 
the new minister’s wife proved herself a thrifty ad- 
ministrator and saved her husband from all unnecessary 
annoyance in his work. George Whitefield—then un- 
married—who always seems to have held rather odd 
notions about womankind in general, fell under the spell 
of this good woman and delightfully recorded his im- 
pressions in his Journal as follows: “She is a woman 
adorned with a meek and quiet spirit, and talked so feel- 
ingly and so solidly concerning the things of God, and 
seemed to be such a helpmeet for her husband, that she 
caused me to renew those prayers which for some months 
I have put up to God, that he would send me a daughter 
of Abraham to be my wife’—and then the great White- 
field added he felt upon many accounts it was his duty 


148 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


to marry! The success of a great man is made sure 
when he has a great woman for his wife. 

The wrath of God.—As a preacher Edwards was 
almost uncanny. He was modest, yet possessed supreme 
confidence in what he said. At times he mounted to 
heights of great tenderness, but for the most part he 
is remembered for his terrific sermons. He presented 
vivid pictures of hell and of the suffering of the damned; 
he believed it was mistaken kindness to speak to wrong- 
doers either kindly or indifferently. He believed that 
“the bigger part of men who have died heretofore have 
gone to hell.” He was most personal to his congregation 
and repeatedly assured those who were present to hear 
him preach that there were many among them whose 
damnation was sure, while in the name of the Lord of 
Hosts he cursed with bitter curses the enemies of God. 
It was awesome preaching, and its terribleness and maj- 
esty have perhaps never been surpassed. 

The Great Awakening.—In July, 1741, Edwards went 
to the quiet little town of Enfield in Connecticut to con- 
duct service. The congregation gathered in this sleepy 
New England town to worship God, and one can imagine 
their surprise when this great giant announced his sub- 
ject as “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” He 
chose as his text the words, “Their foot shall slide in 
due time,’ and preached a sermon the like of which the 
people had never heretofore listened to! 

Under his burning words it is no wonder that the 
people were frightened “as if a ghost had come in their 
midst,’ and that there were tears, then groans and great 
agony. 

Results of the revival—From so mighty an onslaught 
a revival broke out in New England called “The Great 
Awakening.” In Northampton gambling and flippancy 
about the serious things of life prevailed on every side, 
and many of the young men wasted their time loitering 
about the taverns in obscene society. The stiff moral 


THE GREAT AWAKENING 149 


conscience of Edwards would stand nothing of this. He 
urged the people to “flee from the wrath to come,” held 
meetings in private homes, and on every hand young men 
and women set out to save their own souls. He insisted 
that all must be “converted,” and such as had great emo- 


tion were felt most truly to have been saved. The effects 
of this revival spread into more than one hundred and © 


fifty towns and villages. On every hand people were 
talking about religion. Faintings, falling to the ground, 
trances, and convulsions embarrassed the preachers at 
many services, and, indeed, many came to Northampton 
out of idle curiosity to see how the people acted. In 
many places those who were converted drew away from 
those who were not, as though these latter were a plague. 

Opposition.—Much opposition was aroused over the 
turn given to the revival. Teachers in Yale College 
condemned it, and such men as Dr. Chauncy, of the large 
First Church of Boston, denounced the whole movement 
as a delusion, and was especially offended that young chil- 
dren should be frightened. One of the weak points in 
Edwards’ life, however, was his understanding—or, 
rather, misunderstanding—of children; for it was none 
other than he who said: “As innocent as young children 
seem to be to us, yet, if they are out of Christ, they are 
not so in God’s sight, . . . and are in a most miserable 
condition as well as grown persons; and they are nat- 
urally very senseless and stupid, being born as the wild 
ass’s colt, and need much to awaken them.” 

But after all the criticisms possible are made against 
“The Great Awakening,” this, at least, must be said: 
Jonathan Edwards, by a method which we could not 
approve to-day, and with beliefs which are, compared 


New England life a consciousness of God from which 


it has not freed itself. He made men realize that life | 


is serious as well as happy. 
About this time certain books circulating about the 


\ 


with the viewpoint of to-day, somewhat outworn, gave \ 


150 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


town of Northampton came to Edwards’ attention. They 
were of so dirty and foul nature that Edwards suggested 
that the church ask him to investigate the matter, with 
the result that members in the church found children of 
their own households were indulging in this degrading 
reading. They asked their minister to hush the matter 
up. Edwards, being made of finer timber, refused to 
compromise with this petty evil. In accordance with the 
custom of the day, he mentioned from the pulpit the 
names of those known to be reading this obscene litera- 
ture, and almost every family in the church was involved. 
Opposition was aroused and a church meeting was called, 
in which, by a majority of one, he was dismissed from the 
church in Northampton, June 22, 1750. 

Facing adversity—He was now almost penniless and 
had a large family of children. Indeed, several friends 
from Scotland who had come to admire him for the work 
he had done in his writings and preaching, sent gifts 
over to America which were very gratefully received. 
The church in Scotland invited him to become their pas- 
tor, but he declined. To stick by his principles while re- 
maining in New England was his intention. It was a 
year of great trial. Many of the children needed further 
education. Two of his daughters married at this time 
and were obliged to forego elaborate weddings, but still 
he remained firm and with his wife faced the future 
unafraid. 

The Indians.—Toward the latter part of the year 1750 
he received a call to the church in the little outlying 
village of Stockbridge, and, because it afforded an oppor- 
tunity to serve the Indians, he went. While in Stock- 
bridge it is interesting to note that one of the leaders of 
those who opposed him while he was in Northampton 
sent what was virtually an apology, and, in great kind- 
ness of heart, Edwards wrote a reply in which he prac- 
tically forgave them for all they had done. 

University of Princeton.—It was not long, however, 


THE GREAT AWAKENING 151 


that American colonies could leave so influential a man 
alone in the hinterland of the extant civilization. When 
President Burr, of Princeton College, died—he was the . 
father of the Burr who shot Alexander Hamilton after 
the days of the Revolutionary War—the trustees of this 
school invited Edwards to become its president. With 
a modesty quite unassumed Edwards really felt he was 
unfitted to this position of great trust. He was weak 
in the Greek language, knew little of higher mathe- 
matics, and dreaded the enormous expense of moving 
his family from Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to New 
Jersey—a distance of about two hundred miles. Also 
he wished to remain in Stockbridge longer that he might 
write a History of Redemption upon which his heart had 
been set for a long time. With unfeigned reluctance he 
finally accepted the presidency, left his family behind 
in Stockbridge, and set out for Princeton, where two of 
his daughters, Esther and Lucy, waited to welcome him. 

The smallpox epidemic.—For several Sundays he 
preached in Princeton where the smallpox was raging. 
In order to avoid catching this disease he was inoculated. 
He did not, however, escape, and, once taking the malady, 
his body, overworked, and none too rugged with the 
stress of his former life, soon showed marked weak- 
nesses. With amazing rapidity he became worse and all 
hope of his life was given up. Seeing that the end was 
near, this great man’s thoughts turned to his hill-town 
home in Stockbridge where there was the glorious out- 
of-doors of which he was so fond, and where dwelt the 
wife and children, whom he loved with a simple and 
direct affection. Still thinking of his wife, he turned to 
his daughter and said: “Tell her that the uncommon 
union which so long has subsisted between us has been 
of such a nature as I trust is spiritual, and therefore 
will continue forever.” What more beautiful word of 
greeting could a dying man send? But just before he 
slipped out he gathered all his energy and declared to 


152 BUILDERS OF THE: CHURCH 


those standing about his bed: “Trust God and ye need 
not (fear: ® 

Jonathan Edwards lived in a rugged day when strong 
and primitive men were laying the foundations of a new 
nation. Because of the lives of such men as Edwards the 
colonies which later became the United States of America 
were saved from shallow living, materialism, and reli- 
gious disloyalty which came to Europe during the past 
century. He helped build America as he felt God would 
have it—and no man attempts a loftier ambition. 


Stupy Topics 


1. Explain Jonathan Edwards’ teachings concerning sin and 
forgiveness. In what ways did they differ from the teachings 
of Jesus, and from our modern interpretation of the teachings 
of Jesus on the same subject? 

2. What effect did Edwards’ preaching have upon the life 
of New England? 

3. Discuss the place and importance of preaching in the build- 
ing of the church. Contrast its effectiveness with that of 
teaching. 

4. In your judgment, to whom belongs the greater oppor- 
tunity as a builder, the preacher or the teacher? Justify your 
answer. 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Allen, A. V. G—Jonathan Edwards. Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany. 


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FRANCIS ASBURY, WHO DARED GO FOR GOD 


Ir was at the “Bristol Conference” in 1771, that an 
appeal was made to the Methodists to send some envoys 
to America who would declare the Christian message in 
a wild and unsettled land. Mr. John Wesley was getting 
old, but his heart was touched. His voice rang out in 
appeal to the company there assembled: “Our brethren 
in America call aloud for help. Who will gor” A young 
man of twenty-six sprang to his feet. He had blue eyes 
that could see right through you. They gleamed at this 
moment with an inner fire. His forehead was high and 
his locks fell in abundance from his head, he weighed 
about one hundred and fifty pounds and in personality 
seemed as one born to sway others. With a terrible 
earnestness he answered the appeal. He would go. And 
thus Francis Asbury decided to go to America. 

Asbury’s life in England.—Born at Handsworth, near 
Birmingham, in 1745, the son of Joseph and Elizabeth 
Asbury, he lived in a modest but comfortable home most 
of his early life. His only sister, Sarah, died very young, 
leaving him an only child. So carefully was he brought 
up that in later years he stated that he “neither dared an 
oath, nor hazarded a lie.” Entering school at six or seven 
years, he early began to read the Bible. His educational 
experiences were not pleasant, for he had a schoolmaster 
who was a “great churl and beat the children cruelly.” 
For many years he served as an apprentice with a black- 
smith, and was generously treated and given much oppor- 
tunity before the age of fourteen to read many good 
books. While standing at the forge one day he heard a 
voice arresting his attention, and it said: “Go to the lost 
sheep of the house of Israel; and as ye go, preach, say- 


155 


156 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


ing, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand; heal the sick, 
cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; freely 
ye have received, freely give.’” He laid down his ham- 
mer, took off his apron and set out for Bristol, where 
the tremendous challenge of Mr. Wesley’s fell upon his 
ears. 

When the time of leaving for America came, Asbury’s 
father could control himself no longer and broke down, 
crying, “I shall never see him again’—and it was so. 
Although Joseph Asbury lived twenty-seven years more, 
his son never returned again to England, and he died 
without ever seeing him. Francis, however, never for- 
got his father and mother, and many years later wrote 
to his mother as he sent her some money: “I have sold 
my watch and library, and would sell my shirt before you 
should want. I have made a reserve for you. I spend 
very little on myself.” He loved them, and they very 
tenderly loved him to the end. 

Captain Webb.—The Methodist movement was very 
primitive in America. Captain Thomas Webb had been 
assisting a company of worshipers who met regularly in 
such a poor barn in New York city that respectable peo- 
ple would not gather with him. This stalwart soldier 
often used to preach in his regimentals, and this, to- 
gether with the evidences of his wounds, made a deep 
impression upon the people. He headed a list with a 
subscription of thirty pounds—a large sum in those days 
—for a new chapel. Many people added to it, while Mr. 
Wesley sent money, a clock and some books, and Wesley 
Chapel was built. In Philadelphia the beginnings of 
Methodism were equally humble. 

The Revolutionary War.—Methodists were under 
suspicion because so many of them were Englishmen 
and Tories, and would not take the oath of allegiance. 
Then, too, Mr. Wesley had written two or three pam- 
phlets which were very unfriendly toward the American 
colonies, and the colonists most naturally thought that 


DARING FOR GOD 187 


most of his followers would agree with him politically. 
Asbury said, “I received a letter from Mr. Wesley, 
and I am truly sorry that the venerable man ever dipped 
into politics.” Within two years after the Declaration 
of Independence was signed Asbury was the only English 
preacher who remained in America! “It would be an 
eternal dishonor to the Methodists that we should leave 
three thousand souls who desire to commit themselves to 
our care. . . . Therefore by the grace of God, I am 
determined not to leave them, let the consequence be what 
it may.” By happy chance this letter fell into the hands 
of the American authorities, and when they understood 
the friendliness of Asbury to the people, there took place 
a marked change of attitude toward him and the Meth- 
odists throughout the entire country. 

The annual meeting at which all Methodist preachers 
met and transacted their business was called a “Con- 
ference.” The first Conference in America took place in 
1773, when the American Methodists thought of them- 
selves as a part of the English movement. The Revolu- 
tionary War, however, had changed conditions, and 
when they met in 1784 they felt no longer able to remain 
members of the English movement. To this epoch-mak- 
ing gathering, called the “Christmas Conference” be- 
cause it met at Christmas time in 1784, John Wesley 
sent special representatives, namely, Bishop Thomas 
Coke, Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey. These men 
were to ordain Asbury and make him ‘‘general super- 
intendent” of all Methodist work in America. 

Asbury at first declined to be ordained and consented 
finally only on condition that this Conference at its usual 
session, with all the ministers present, elect him to the 
superintendency. Freeborn Garrettson—somewhat like 
Paul Revere of the same generation—was sent “like an 
arrow’ to summon the preachers, and out of about a 
total of eighty, sixty were assembled on Friday, Decem- 
ber 24, 1784, in Baltimore. 


158 BUILDERS “OP CDPHE tGhUR GE 


Asbury made a bishop.—On the second day of this 
Conference, Asbury was ordained a deacon, and on the 
next he was made an elder in the church and a day or two 
later consecrated superintendent or bishop of the work 
in America. The new bishop entered his office in the 
church with such great dignity that when Jesse Lee first 
saw him in his long, black robe conducting a church sery- 
ice, this humble democrat was moved with wrath. This 
same Conference also gave the newly organized church 
its name—the Methodist Episcopal Church—and the first 
book of church law, called the Discipline, was adopted. 
After this Conference Methodism was no longer merely 
a religious movement in America but a regularly organized 
and established church. 

The extension of the church in America.—Denying 
himself a home and a wife in order that he might serve 
his church more faithfully, soon after the Christmas Con- 
ference Bishop Asbury visited George Washington at 
Mount Vernon, where he was very politely entertained, 
and the “Father of His Country” at this time gave him 
a strong opinion against slavery. Asbury was a great 
statesman. In his heart he had a complete picture of the 
United States of America won completely for Jesus 
Christ. He planned for schools, sought to secure able 
missionaries to send out to the Indians, and tried to 
secure a bishop for Nova Scotia and Canada. Clearly 
did he see the stream of white migration moving west- 
ward over the Allegheny Mountains out on to the West- 
ern plains. That the responsibility of winning the West 
for Christ and keeping the pioneer life clean and whole- 
some rested to a large degree upon the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church he fervently believed, and to this task gave 
himself without stint. One of those rare geniuses who 
read the future, he saw what America might become 
without Christ contrasted with the glory she could achieve 
with him. For this great work of leavening the new 
American civilization he trained himself and studied at 


DARING FOR GOD 159 


all hours, read widely and eventually became a great 
scholar. 

No home.—A letter, one day, came to America in an 
English sailing vessel, addressed to “The Rev. Bishop 
Asbury, North America’’ What a peculiar address! 
But Asbury had no home. The North American conti- 
“nent was his home. His home was on the road. 

Let us follow him for one year only. He left New 
York on horseback in the early part of September and 
proceeded to Philadelphia. Now get your geographies 
and follow his trail. Thence to Wilmington, Baltimore, 
to Norfolk and farther south to Raleigh, on to Charles- 
ton and down into Georgia. On his return through 
South and North Carolina, he crossed the mountains to 
the Holston River in Tennessee and plunged into the 
Kentucky wilderness. After a long journey we find him 
in New York again, and he proceeded directly through 
Connecticut and Massachusetts to Lynn, crossed over the 
Berkshire Hills in midsummer to Albany, and from there 
to New York. All this journey was made on horseback 
over roads so rough that a sturdy carriage could not pass. 
He did not know what a Pullman was! 

Many times he complained that his horse—which he 
always treated with great kindness—was sore and tired. 
Well the beast might be! Asbury himself slept in all 
manner of places—out of doors, under trees, in swamps, 
and in unsanitary beds and houses round about Ken- 
tucky. Ofttimes in danger, he remained on guard all 
night, where he feared the others might fall asleep and 
give the blood-thirsty Indians their opportunity. His 
saddle turned one night while he was on_horse- 
back and he was nearly killed. Crossing the Poto- 
mac in an open boat he was almost drowned, and 
later came near dying from exposure when lost in the 
swamps. His horse stumbled and threw him into swift 
running rivers repeatedly and ruffians sought his life 
to take it. 


160 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


Always sick upon the road he seemed. For four 
months he traveled when continuously ill, covered with 
boils, afflicted with rheumatism, influenza, high fevers, 
fainting spells; and one easily understands how in a 
moment of gloom, as he stopped in some noisy house 
where he was granted the privilege of sleeping on the dirt 
floor, ere going to bed, he wrote in his diary these awful 
words: “Pain, pain, pain.” I think he must have known 
a little bit of what Calvary was like. Consulting a 
physician, he was told his heart and lungs were so bad 
that if he did not rest immediately, he would soon be 
dead. For a few months he did rest, and then rose out 
of bed and was at it again. 

The prophet.—Such a man could afford to be strong 
with his disciples. Men will take discipline from a hero. 
[n one place he significantly remarked that he spoke 
some very strong words of rebuke in his sermon, and 
then added that when he afterward met the society, “I 
kept the door.” He flayed iniquity whether in friend or 
foe, and was strict with his preachers too, never tolerating 
shirkers. He insisted that they must not neglect their 
habits of study. Though severe, yet he loved them. In 
1806 he heard that some of them were unusually poor 
and destitute for clothes, and no sooner had this news 
come than he parted with his watch, sold a coat and a 
shirt, so that his preachers might have raiment. 

Places of preaching.—Like Wesley, he preached in all 
kinds of places—in barracks, at the execution of crimi- 
nals, before prisoners, in barns, kitchens, saloons, huts, 
courthouses, concert houses, and theaters. One day he 
entered a dance hall just as the recreation was about to 
begin, and upon gaining the ears of his hearers he spoke 
to them about the words: “Then whosoever heareth the 
sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the 
sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon 
his own head,” and indicted their very lives in a sermon 
which lasted for two hours until they broke down and 


DARING FOR GOD 161 


wailing was on every side. There was no dance that 
night. 

Popularity of Asbury.—One must not think, however, 
that Bishop Asbury lost all his contact with the joy of 
living. Indeed, no. Young men liked to travel with 
him, for his comradeship was exhilarating and he owned 
a fund of anecdotes. His preachers adored him. If they 
were ill on the journey, he covered them with his own 
blanket ; and if they were in trouble, he befriended them. 
Having no children of his own, he dearly loved those 
who belonged to others. When Henry Willis died, the 
bishop went into his home, “kissed and encircled in his 
arms the six orphaned children of his departed friend 
and blessed them in the name of the Lord.” 

And the children loved Asbury in turn. He had stories 
and games, and when he came into any home to stop 
overnight, the children at least were in for a good time. 
“Mother, I want my face washed and a clean apron on, 
for Bishop Asbury is coming and I am sure he will hug 
me up!”’—as one spoke, so spoke all children who met 
Asbury. 

Physical distress.—But be a heart ever so valiant, it 
cannot forever stand the strain involved in the type of 
life which Asbury daily lived. Unheeding of the warn- 
ings of physicians, he continued pouring out his life 
until he felt the grip of tuberculosis upon his frame. 
His joints swelled. His heart became weaker. He could 
ride horseback no more, and a friend provided a light 
carriage, while the Conference ordered a young man to 
escort him along his journey to see that he was better 
taken care of. 

Still he kept on, though his days’ journeys became 
shorter and the tarrying at the taverns and huts and 
homes along the way became longer and longer. His 
weakness and suffering increased daily. Near the end 
he wrote in his diary, “I die daily.” A friend, who was 
a physician, cared for him and increased the dose of 


162 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


digitalis for his weak heart; but on he went, forever on. 
Late in December he wrote, “I preached this Sabbath. 

. . I live in God from moment to moment.” He 
never wrote after that. They carried him from his 
carriage into the pulpit, where, seated, he preached his 
last sermon. Frequently he was obliged to pause be- 
cause of shortness of breath. Leaving this church, he 
became so weak that he was glad to rest at his friend’s 
home, George Arnold’s, about twenty miles from Fred- 
ericksburg. His cough increased and a physician was 
sent for. 

The end of “The Long Road.”—It was Sunday 
morning and Asbury asked his friend John Wesley Bond 
to sing a hymn to the family, after which were read those 
gleaming words: “And I saw a new heaven and a new 
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed 
away.” To the end of this beautiful family service 
Asbury kept up with clear mind, though friends saw he 
was failing. Bond asked him if he felt Christ to be 
present, and this worn old man, valorous but unable to 
speak, lifted both his hands in token of complete triumph, 
and then with calm and quiet passed out into the land 
of the morning light. 

A messenger was dispatched to Methodists saying, 
“Our dear father has left us, and has gone to the church 
triumphant.” I do not wonder that the Methodists and 
other men of good will desire to erect a statue to Francis 
Asbury in the capital at Washington. For when any 
man does his duty and advances the civilization of a re- 
public like ours, and in so conspicuous a manner honors 
Jesus Christ, he is never forgotten. The eventual fame 
of great men rests upon their service to humanity and 
loyalty to Christ. 


Stupy Topics 


1. Discuss the early development of Methodism in America. 
In what manner was it affected by the Revolutionary War? 


DARING FOR GOD 163 


2. Of what magnitude was Asbury’s task in America and how 
did he seek to perform it? 

3. Discuss the factors with which Asbury had to contend in 
his work and how he overcame them. 

4. When we consider the price that was paid by the early 
builders of the church, how may we best assume and discharge 
our responsibility to the Christian enterprise, that their price 
may not have been paid in vain? 

5. Summarize the life and character of Francis Asbury and 
state specifically his contribution to the building of the church. 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Tipple, E. S—Francis Asbury, the Prophet of the Long Road. 
Strickland, William P—The Pioneer Bishop, or The Life of 
Francis Asbury. 


CHAPTER XVII 


THE CHAMPION OF BROAD-MINDEDNESS 
AND TOLERA LION 


In 1805 the Rev. Henry Ware was elected professor 
of divinity at Harvard College, and as a “liberal” fol- 
lowed David Tappan, who for many years had taught in 
the college. Many of the orthodox people of Boston 
opposed this choice of the trustees of Harvard and de- 
sired a man to fill this position who would be loyal to the 
Calvinism of Jonathan Edwards and others, while friends 
of Henry Ware espoused his cause, and a great battle 
called “The Unitarian Controversy” ensued. Chief 
among the supporters of Professor Ware was a young 
man who recently moved to Boston, named William 
Ellery Channing, and so clearly does his life represent 
this new movement for liberalism and the right of per- 
sonal judgment in matters of religion that in reviewing 
his marvelous career, we shall know more of the issues 
at stake. 

William Ellery Channing’s preparation for life.— 
William Ellery Channing was born April 7, 1780, in 
Newport, Rhode Island. A friend tells of him as a boy 
of three or four years of age owning “light-brown wavy 
hair, brilliant eyes, and glowing cheeks.” Early he went 
to school, and from experiences with a brutal teacher 
found cruelty toward men to be unbearable. In later 
years, when corporal punishment for prisoners was being 
advocated, he was in a company where he could not con- 
tain himself and burst forth, “What! Strike a man!?’?— 
and there was such fervor in his voice that his hearers 
were quite overwhelmed. In this comfortable home of 
early youth he met such men as George Washington and 
Ezra Stiles, who stopped overnight on their journeys, In 

164 


CHAMPION OF BROAD-MINDEDNESS 165 


this little town “Father Thurston,” a Baptist preacher, 
won his admiration. The preacher was poor, worked 
during the week at the trade of a cooper, but simply 
would not make kegs and barrels—a most profitable 
undertaking for the rum trade then extant between New 
England and Jamaica—but at personal loss limited his 
energies to the manufacture of pails only. 

Hell fire.—Once in the church Channing heard the 
minister preaching a terrible sermon about hell fire. 
William was scared. His father stated it was all true. 
Upon returning home William watched his father to see 
whether or not he would alarm the household with this 
awful news; but his father sat down and quietly began 
reading the newspaper—and then William knew that 
his father actually did not think the sermon was all true 
even though he verbally professed to believe it. At the 
age of twelve his father died and the family was re- 
duced to want and poverty. At the age of fifteen he 
entered Harvard. | 

College life—In those days Harvard students had 
little intimacy or friendliness with the faculty, while the 
“fag system’—an evil heritage from English schools— 
was in full vogue and required freshmen to do all sorts 
of humiliating work for the seniors. Here he studied 
science, mathematics, and especially the brand new sub- 
ject of “electricity.” He learned to hate France 
thoroughly and despise the French Revolution, which was 
then at its height, and united with other students in 
sending an “Address” to his Excellency, John Adams, the 
President of the United States, in which these Harvard 
men asstired the President of their loyalty and their will- 
ingness to lay down their lives for their country. 

Trip to Virginia—To complete his education he ac- 
cepted a position in the home of a rich planter, David 
Meade Randolph, of Richmond, Virginia. Away from New 
England, he wrote many beautiful letters to his mother, 
whom he dearly loved, and told her of his homesickness. 


166 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


While in Richmond he severely limited his sleep, took 
as little food as possible, indulged in much night study, 
and neglected his daily exercise. He spent most of his 
salary upon books and refused to spend much upon 
clothes, even going throughout the entire winter with no 
overcoat. When Christmas came he discovered himseli 
so scantily attired that he could not meet with his host 
and the guests upon that day. 

In July, 1800, he returned to Newport in a sloop which 
transported coal. ~The vessel was in wretched condition. 
leaky, damp, and manned by a captain and crew generally 
drunk. Once he was nearly wrecked upon this voyage, 
and was exposed to the wet most of the time. He became 
ill, and upon arriving home his friends were shocked to 
see this robust youth who had left them eighteen months 
before return pallid, weak, and an invalid. The days of 
his health were gone, and from now on we tell the story 
of a man who was ever in poorest health. 

In 1801 Channing was made a “regent” at Harvard and 
continued his studies, and in 1802 began preaching. On 
June 1, 1803, he was ordained minister of the Federal 
Street Congregational Church in Boston and served as 
minister of that church until the end of his days. 

Channing as preacher.—From the first, Channing 
took his place as among the foremost prophets of Boston. 
The Federal Street Church was always crowded to the 
doors. 

“With a somewhat elastic and rapid step, a person 
small in stature, thin and pale, and carefully enveloped, 
ascends the pulpit stair. It is he. For a moment he 
deliberately and benignantly surveys the large congrega- 
tion, as if drinking in the influence of so many human 
beings; and then, laying aside his outer garments, and 
putting on the black silk gown, he selects the hymn and 
passage from Scripture, and, taking his seat, awaits the 
beginning of the service.” 

He was unusually natural and sincere and used no 


CHAMPION OF BROAD-MINDEDNESS 167 


tricks to stir the emotions of his hearers. As one listener 
said, “I did not weep, for there was something too deep 
for tears.” 

Soon this church became famous throughout New 
England and later throughout the world. Mighty ad- 
dresses were made from its pulpit in those stirring times 
of the young republic. In 1810 Channing won the atten- 
tion of all progressive men in an address which bitterly 
condemned Napoleon and the excesses of the French 
Revolution, and again the people were aroused by his 
address given when the War of 1812 was declared. Later, 
when Napoleon was overthrown and somebody was to 
be selected by the mayor of Boston to make a suitable 
speech in commemoration of this fact, the choice fell 
upon Channing, and in the Stone Chapel the citizens 
gathered in 1814 to listen to his words. It was won- 
derful how the speaker listed the dangers and wrongs 
of the world, and when he came to the words “The 
oppressor is fallen and the world is free,” the people 
could be restrained no more and shout upon shout rang 
out upon the air. 

Channing’s private life—As soon as Channing 
entered upon his pastorate in the Federal Street Church 
he invited his mother and all his brothers and sisters to 
come and live with him. So keen was their poverty that 
they moved to Boston, where Channing’s salary of $1,200 
—unusually large for that day—kept thern in reasonable 
comfort. 

Not until Channing was almost thirty-five did he 
marry, and then he chose as his partner his cousin, Ruth 
Gibbs. His mother-in-law was wealthy and he went to 
live at the Gibbs’ home. There were many children who 
came to this happy family. But the first baby died when 
only a few days old and nearly broke the father’s heart. 
Said he: “Still my heart clung to her; and when I saw 
the last struggle on Wednesday afternoon, about twenty- 
four hours after her birth, I wept over her as if I had 


168 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


been deprived of a long-possessed blessing. . . . I 
feel as if my prayers for this little one, and my baptismal 
and funeral services, had formed a connection between 
us.’ At a later date, while he was away touring in 
Europe, his boy Walter died, and his grief was inexpres- 
sible; but, like a good Christian, he triumphed over it. 
When his dear friend Charles Follen died and he was 
informed, “an expression of agony crossed his face. He 
covered his eyes with his hands, then looked up and 
said, ‘It is well.’”. And it was well, for his spirit ever 
shone forth unclouded. 

The social gospel.—One of the most significant con- 
tributions which Channing made to the life of the church 
was his emphasis that the church should be interested 
in all things which pertained to the welfare of men and 
should be at work seven days in the week. Early in his 
ministry he urged his people to venture to build a “‘vestry” 
for his church, and he also suggested a great innovation 
—that they should own and operate a library. In addi- 
tion to this, one discovers this young preacher to be 
noting the things that need to be improved in town: the 
rooms in the poorhouse are to be better aired, causes of 
poverty are to be traced, amusements are to be improved, 
rental of houses reduced, and the motives employed by 
men in accumulating their wealth to be purified. Much 
that is modern is found here, and one marvels in this 
spirit of venturesome pioneering. 

As Channing grew his interest in people about him 
increased. He thought that if children must work in 
factories, these industries should furnish education for 
the youngsters they employed. He often planned how 
best he could gather about him a congregation of labor- 
ing men. 

Education.—This same loyalty to the masses com- 
pelled him to support the excellent and epoch-making 
work undertaken by the Hon. Horace Mann, who be- 
came secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. 


CHAMPION OF BROAD-MINDEDNESS | 169 


Horace Mann intended that every child in Massachusetts 
should have an education, and in this received the sup- 
port of Channing. His opinion of those agencies which 
were aligned against Mann is expressed in a letter 
written to him which states, “My ear is pained, my very 
soul sick with the monotonous yet furious clamors about 
currency, banks, etc., when the spiritual interests of the 
community seem hardly to be recognized as having any 
reality.” 

Opposition to other evils.—Dueling also received his 
attention and when a man was shot in Boston as the re- 
sult of one such duel his fury against the system knew 
no bounds. Criminals were given his consideration, and 
he was among the first to advocate an enlightened treat- 
ment of that class, declaring that cruelty would not work 
reform in the heart of a felon. Visiting the penitentiary 
at Philadelphia in 1832, he admired its modern treat- 
ment of its inmates. | 

Anti-slavery.—The outstanding evidence of Chan- 
ning’s social loyalty, however, is his thorough opposition 
to the institution of slavery. While in Richmond in his 
early days and later in Santa Cruz he saw the iniquity of 
slavery and loathed it. Later while away on a trip to 
Europe, William Lloyd Garrison came to Boston and be- 
gan to publish The Liberator, and, to the amazement of 
the citizens, called aloud for immediate abolition of 
slavery. In 1831 the “Missouri Compromise,” which per- 
mitted the extension of slavery within the Union, was 
signed. This brought Channing out into the open, and he 
espoused heartily the cause of the slave. 

In 1834 riots took place in New York, and even law- 
abiding citizens looked on without interference at the 
attempts made to silence the abolitionists by force. At 
this time Channing said that these reformers should re- 
view their statements, go over their arguments, and 
then recant nothing. The next year he stated: “I have 
exhausted myself in writing my little book on slavery.” 


170 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


Anti-slavery convention—Soon Elijah P. Lovejoy, 
of Alton, Illinois, was shot while defending his press, be- 
cause he printed sentiments in his Alton Observer offen- 
sive to slaveholders. Channing petitioned for a meet- 
ing to be held in the historic Faneuil Hall for the pur- 
pose of denouncing the invasion of this right of free 
speech. 

Channing was on the stage and the attorney-general 
of the State mounted the platform and gave an inciting 
speech in which he alluded to the slaves as “wild beasts 
thirsting for blood” and defended the murder of Lovejoy 
at the hands of the mob. It was then that a young 
lawyer relatively unknown rushed upon the stage, made 
a short speech and referring to the remarks made by the 
attorney-general said: “Sir, for the sentiments he has 
uttered, on soil consecrated by the prayers of Puritans 
and the blood of patriots, the earth should have yawned 
and swallowed him up.” The tumult became deafening ; 
but the reputation of Wendell Phillips was forever secure 
in the annals of American history as the defender of 
the oppressed and harassed, for it was none other than he 
who made this speech which condemned slavery in the 
minds of the Boston citizenry. 

The new spirit in religion—As before stated, the 
spirit of the church at the beginning of the nineteenth 
century was not overtolerant, and those strivings which 
had given trouble to England were taken over into her 
colonies as well. Especially was this true in New Eng- 
land, where the followers of Edwards insisted that their 
picture of God was the only true one, and that their con- 
ception of the church was the only one the state could 
countenance. But the Calvinist idea of God being so 
arbitrary, and forever condemning one man to hell and 
another to heaven, with no chance of changing the divine 
decree, aroused resentment, and there were murmurings 
among certain independent thinkers against this teach- 
ing. The election of Henry Ware as professor of divinity 





CHAMPION OF BROAD-MINDEDNESS 171 


at Harvard brought this to a climax. The supporters of 
Edwards did not wish him to serve, as he was not 
orthodox from their point of view. 

In the opposition the leader was Channing. He 
opposed these theological bigots and summoned the 
church to unfetter itself from the teaching of- Edwards 
which no longer availed, and which even since his death 
had been changed and cheapened. With great emphasis 
he asserted that each man could work out his own salva- 
tion and possessed the God-given right of “free inquiry 
into the eternal truths and ‘by understanding the truth 
could be saved.” 

The spirit of inquiry.—Channing in glowing terms in- 
sisted that Christianity was a spiritual force to redeem 
the mind from evil and from dogmas; that is, truths 
which cannot be reasoned about but must be accepted 
upon authority. He exalted the reason and the will and 
declared there was nothing in the teaching of Jesus 
which could not be subjected to the reason and that the 
more men reverently questioned the great truths of reli- 
gion and life the more they would discover the worth of 
such truths and be captured by them. No sin resided in 
asking questions regarding Christianity. Indeed, he went - 
even further and declared that Edwards’ idea of God was 
wrong and that he was not an arbitrary Sovereign sub- 
jecting men to his arbitrary will, but, rather, a loving 
heavenly Father. Repeatedly he exclaimed, “God is per- 
fectly good!” Many were the misunderstandings in this 
age of heated discussion, and Channing was accused of 
believing that Christ was liable to error and sin just like 
other human beings. Although Channing did not believe 
that Jesus was God, still he denied any such statements 
as his opponents imputed to him, and, by his life showed 
that he inwardly understood and was captured by the 
spirit of Jesus. 

The weakness of body.—All through this busy life 
Channing’s body continued weak. His health was so 


172 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


poor that friends in his church gave him a year’s vacation 
and a handsome sum to pay for a trip to Europe. He 
left his children and went. Friends greeted him in Liver- 
pool, but his strength was so low that he was obliged 
quickly to leave the city. While in the hills of Scot- 
land he made a visit to the great Wordsworth, saw Lan- 
caster Castle, now full of thieves and felons, and later 
was visited by Coleridge. He retired to Italy, where his 
strength was partly recuperated, and then arrived home 
to preach again to his beloved people. But it was of no 
use. 

An assistant pastor was secured for him; then he re- 
linquished part of his salary and finally all, because he 
could do so little of the church work. At last, after he 
had been the pastor of the Federal Street Church almost 
forty years, he wrote a beautiful letter saying that the 
church should dispense with his services altogether. In 
such esteem was he held that the people who had seen 
this little church grow to become one of the largest and 
most influential in the city would not let him go. He 
remained and died as their pastor. Weakness, fever, 
coughing, tuberculosis—these and a host of other pain- 
giving agents combined to undermine his will and domi- 
nate his spirit daily, but in vain. 

The last days.—In 1842 he took a trip through the 
valleys of Pennsylvania, but was taken ill and’ was obliged 
to remain in bed one month. Later in the summer he 
went to the beautiful town of Lenox, nestled in the 
lovely Berkshires, but to no avail, for his strength de- 
creased. 

Said he: “What mysteries we are to ourselves! Here 
am I finding life a sweeter cup as I approach what are 
called its dregs.” Finally he determined to return to 
Boston, but was smitten on the way and detained at Ben- 
nington among the same hills, then came typhoid, and 
friends sent for his brother. For twenty-six days he 
fought right valiantly, but was eventually obliged to say 


CHAMPION OF BROAD-MINDEDNESS 173 


to those about him, “The chain which the spirit wears 
is broken.’”’ During his last days he turned to those about 
him and calmly said he would like to return to Boston, 
if possible, “to die there.” On his last day he asked © 
that the Sermon on the Mount might be read to him, and 
in a low voice said to his hearers, “I have received many 
messages from the Spirit.” “‘As the day declined he grew 
fainter and fainter. With our aid he turned himself 
towards the window, which looked over valleys and 
wooded summits to the east. We drew back the curtains, 
and the light glorified his face. The sun had just set, 
and the clouds and sky were bright with gold and crimson. 
He breathed no more, and without a sigh or struggle his 
spirit passed.” The world needs such men as can say, 
“Never do I so earnestly desire to subdue my evil pas- 
sions, and to put on humility and universal love, as when 
I behold the glory of God in the face, in the actions, in 
the words, of Jesus Christ.” 


Stupy Topics 


1. How did the Master’s injunction, “Ye shall know the truth, 
and the truth shall make you free,’ apply to the life and work 
of William Ellery Channing? 

2. What should be the attitude of modern Christians toward 
intellectual problems in religion? Why is an open mind on reli- 
gious matters essential to progress in religion? 

3. Is the social gospel which Channing preached in accordance 
with the teachings of Jesus? Answer by means of fitting illus- 
trations. Why must present-day Christianity concern itself 
with social, industrial, and economic problems? 

4. Who was Horace Mann and what contribution did he make 
to public education in America? 

5. What attitude did the church assume toward slavery? 
What part did the church play in the struggle to free the slaves? 

6. What attitude should we as builders of the church assume 
toward the search for new truth? toward social, industrial, and 
economic problems? toward education? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Cooke, George Willis—Umttarianism in America. 
Channing, William Henry—Life of William Ellery Channing. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


HORACE BUSHNELL RESTORES CHILDREN 
TO THEIR PLACE IN THE CHURCH 


In 1833, when Horace Bushnell entered upon his min- 
istry in the Congregational Church at Hartford, much 
of the influence.of Jonathan Edwards had gone; his 
Decrees were felt to be inhuman, and when Dr. John 
Lord was asked before the committee which was to 
recommend him for ordination the time-worn question, 
“Are you willing to be damned for the glory of God a 
he replied, “No, but I am willing that the committee 
should be.” Then, too, the influence of Francis Asbury 
was being felt in every hamlet as he declared the mercy 
of God, and America experienced a series of revivals 
which lasted from 1800 to 1850. Men could not forget 
the message of Channing, which declared that God always 
was and always would be characterized by love. Horace 
Bushnell saw that even with this progress in the reli- 
gious life of the church, children were being neglected, 
and that though this revivalism did great good, especially 
in keeping civilization along the frontiers of America 
a going concern, yet salvation was not being brought to 
children unless they submitted to being treated as adults. 
So he was the inaugurator who restored the child to his 
former position in the church. 

Bushnell’s early life-——Born in the little New Eng- 
land village of Bantam, nestled back among the hills 
and woods twenty miles from Long Island Sound, 
this boy first saw the light of day on April 14, 1802. 
His father lived in a little cottage at the foot of a long, 
sloping hill which backed up more than a mile to its 
summit. It was a squatty house, filled with a happy 
family. 

174 


CHILDREN IN THE CHURCH 175 


All the family worked, and for Horace there were 
berries to be picked, a large garden to be weeded, much 
hard wood to be sawed and split, and fields to be plowed. 
His early education was carried on at home under the 
guidance of his able mother, who taught all her chil- 
dren to ask questions freely and to indulge in the freedom 
of thought. Horace’s mother also taught him music in 
that crude farmhouse. As he grew older he worked at 
wool-carding in the small village, and then at farming, 
and thus remained in the little New England village until 
he was twenty-one years old. 

College days.—Bushnell was prepared for college and 
entered Yale in 1823. He was noted for being very 
strong and robust and led his class in athletics; but 
despite this he was not overwell known, inasmuch as 
he lived the life of a recluse. The music at the college 
chapel greatly interested him and he organized an 
Orpheus Society—the first musical society in the history 
of Yale. One of his classmates described him as “a 
black-eyed, sturdy, carelessly dressed, athletic, and inde- 
pendent good fellow, popular in spite of being blunt and 
exemplary.” 

Bushnell had great difficulty in choosing what he would 
become. He taught school; but did not like it at all, 
and wrote to a friend saying he “would rather lay stone 
wall any time’ about the lots upon his father’s farm. 
Then for ten months he worked for a New York daily 
paper—The Journal of Commerce—had “‘a terrible time” 
and then quit. He also considered becoming a lawyer 
and entered the New Haven Law School, where he 
studied for six months and then left to become a tutor 
upon the Yale faculty in 1829. 

While teaching at Yale, Bushnell’s religion caused 
him great difficulty, and, indeed, he said that his faith 
“had gone down.” In 1831 there was a great revival, 
violently emotional and just the type that was going 
throughout the land in those days. Bushnell could not 


176 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


see the value of this kind of a religious experience and 
for days indulged in spiritual darkness. Being wor- 
shiped by his students, he felt that he was responsible for 
their welfare, and challenged them to seek with him the 
worth of Christianity. This band was to search and 
spare not, and believe nothing which was not the truth. 
Going upon this basis, Bushnell finally came to the place 
where he accepted Christianity in its modern form and 
from his experience formulated two rules. The first 
was, “Never be afraid of doubt.” The second, “Be 
afraid of all sophistries, and tricks and strikes of dis- 
ingenuous argument.” Proceeding thus, he found a 
very real friendship with Jesus Christ. He was wont to 
say that the phrase, “O God, if there be a God,” was 
a most miserable sort of prayer for a man to be making, 
and repeatedly asserted that “doubt is not occasioned by 
investigation, but by lack of it.” 

Hartford.—Called to become pastor of the North 
Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut, he 
entered upon his pastorate May 22, 1833. From Litch- 
field he drove, and arrived in Hartford during a driving 
snowstorm such as only New England can boast, and 
after preaching six Sundays won the confidence of all 
people who heard him. 

In September of that same year, not being able to live 
longer alone, he invited the highly cultured and good- 
tempered Mary Apthorp to become his wife, and they 
were married, living in a simple, square, two-storied 
house with a small green yard and a huge oak tree in the 
rear. A very large garden in the back of this house was 
cultivated by Bushnell with great industry, for it was his 
custom during the spring and summer to rise with the 
birds and cut hay while the dew was still upon it, or 
cultivate his vegetables and fruit for at least two hours 
before breakfast, and then go into the house for the 
happy time of family prayers, after which all the family 
set about the tasks for the day. 


CHILDREN IN THE CHURCH 177, 


Into this happy home came sorrows, for sorrows enter 
the finest of homes. An infant daughter died in 1837, 
and at the time of her death an older child was danger- 
ously ill and remained so for a long period. It was 
very sobering to Bushnell and brought hitherto un- 
known lines into his face. Five years later his only son 
passed away, and then the father knew himself to be 
indeed “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” 

Bushnell’s home life.—But this home was generally 
supremely happy and the minister used to have romps 
with the remaining children every day after dinner. He 
always saw the funny side of life and was ever ready to 
play whenever he found time. Though he was ill for 
more than twenty years, yet the fun of life never left 
him, and whosoever stopped at his home found plenty of 
joy and good fellowship therein. Wishing to be most 
human, he chose his clothes so that none who looked at 
him would be reminded that he was a minister. 

The preacher.—His fame spread throughout the 
United States. A noteworthy lecture entitled “The Age 
of Homespun” was repeated again and again. Several 
times he was invited to address the State Legislature 
assembled at the Capitol in Hartford. When the cele- 
bration of the Beethoven Society took place at Yale, at 
which time the first organ ever installed in the college 
was to be dedicated, Bushnell was asked to make the 
chief address. So great was his reputation that Wes- 
leyan University conferred upon him the degree of Doc- 
tor of Divinity, and Middlebury College invited him to 
become its president. Later the young but vigorous Uni- 
versity of California also asked him to become its first 
president. 

In 1844 a Great Fast Day, was celebrated in the. 
church to ask the direction of Almighty God in the 
affairs of the country, for things did look gloomy, and 
later, in 1851, he wrote an impassioned letter to a friend 
in which he talks about those runaway slaves who came 


178 BUILDERS OF VTETR GE Rest 


North seeking to escape into Canada: “But chase a 
fugitive slave or withhold my sympathy and aid from 
a fugitive from slavery !—may God grant me grace never 
to do the damning sin.” Such opinions did not make for 
peace in the land nor in Bushnell’s life, but here was a 
man who made it one of the cardinal points of his life 
never to compromise and never to flinch on a moral 
issue—and slavery was no exception. 

The great oration at Yale.—At the close of the Civil 
War Yale College determined to invite all her sons to 
return to their Alma Mater for a great commemoration 
of her honored dead. The armies were not yet dis- 
banded, and from many fields and posts came the men 
and officers in their uniforms. Generals and admirals 
and other high officers, together with men of great dis- 
tinction in civil life who mingled with a veritable host 
of privates who had done their best for college and coun- 
try, were present. Bushnell was the central figure at 
this august occasion and he stood before the people like 
a prophet ready to bear his message. His theme was 
“Obligations to Our Dead,” an oration in honor of the 
Yale men who fell in the war. When he concluded this 
marvelous address with the words, “These grim heroes, 
therefore, dead and dumb, that have strewed so many 
fields with their bodies, these are the price and the pur- 
chase-money of our triumph. A great many of us were 
ready to live, but these offered themselves, in a sense, 
to die, and by their cost the victory is won,” his audience 
was moved beyond the power of one to describe. From 
that day to his death his fame as ari orator was estab- 
lished. 

The revival question.—Evangelism in the days of 
Bushnell was sometimes not a very glorious thing, for it 
was apt to become utterly neglectful of the children. 
Though very few people could be as severe on their fel- 
lows as was Edwards, yet a certain type of revivalism 
prevailing within the church was quite intolerant. Bush- 


CHILDREN IN THE CHURCH 179 


nell felt that in this kind of Christian life there was a 
danger lest men should be prone to superstition and 
abnormality in religion. He also believed that this type 
of expression of the Christian life might make men for- 
get the place of children within the church. He did not 
oppose revivals, but he did insist that such gatherings 
were not the only means of salvation, and that, gen- 
erally speaking, they offered no means at all for chil- 
dren to obtain that kind of a character which the Chris- 
tian implies by the word “salvation.” He also hoped for 
a nobler type of evangelism and knew that it would come 
in time. “The law of growth does not lie in revivals,” 
and he set out to show the church a more normal way. 

The defense of child life——-In 1847 Horace Bushnell 
published a book entitled Christian Nurture, in which 
he laid down what for him was one of the great proposi- 
tions of his ministry, namely, “The child is to grow up 
a Christian, and never know himself as being otherwise.” 
With the idea of a terrible God such as Edwards had 
left to these people, it is easy to see how they felt that 
Bushnell’s proposition was impossible. The “awful child 
of perdition” must repent, thought they, if he would be 
saved. 

Many of the ideas for which Bushnell stood are 
readilly accepted by most thoughtful persons nowadays, 
but at the time of his first preaching and writing about 
them they made a tremendous impression. Either the 
adult church member believed that ‘‘all children are born 
in sin” or else paid little attention to the place of the chil- 
dren in the church. He did not understand what Bush- 
nell meant when he assumed that all children were mem- 
bers of the Kingdom. A society called “The Theological 
Institute of Connecticut” charged him with heresy; but 
since under the Congregational system of church govern- 
ment it is very hard to press charges of heresy, this 
accusation amounted to naught. 

Bushnell was the center of a bitter controversy. Dr. 


180 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


Hawes, of the Center Church, Hartford, was full of 
personal animosity, which was met by a personal raillery 
from Bushnell, which made it none the less keen. The 
college chapel at Yale and the New Haven churches never- 
theless were open to him, and he was invited to lecture 
in Harvard College often. He was called a “hypocrite,” 
a “liar,’ and a “Unitarian” !—as though all these terms 
were synonymous! Friends and members within his own 
church stood with him, and because the ideals of his life 
were delineated in his own words, “Let me do the right 
and let God take care of men; I want to be in no better 
hands,” he won. 

To be quite frank, the revivalistic method was not 
meeting the entire need of the church. When Bushnell 
came, advocating that they try and “grow Christians” and 
keep boys and girls within the church from their youth 
up, his idea was felt worth trying, with the result that 
from the day that Christian Nurture was given to the 
public, that movement, which later was to be called “reli- 
gious education” within the church, has experienced a 
continued growth. Bushnell has done more than any 
other man during the past century for the Sunday school 
and for education in the church. 

One can realize the strain under which he labored by 
reading a part of one of his letters to a friend: “May 
God in his mercy deliver me, so long as he lets me stay 
in this life, from all ecclesiastical brewing of scandals 
and heresies, the wire-pulling, the schemes to get power 
and to keep it. . . . The mournful thing of it 1s, 
that no man can be in it and be in the love of God.” 

A good citizen.—Bushnell was ever interested in his 
fellow citizens. If there was any city-wide evil, he was 
sure to be in the front ranks opposing it. For long he 
advocated that the city of Hartford install a water and 
sewerage system, and as a result of his campaign for 
this improvement, lived to see this city among the first in 
America to take this step. 


CHILDREN IN THE CHURCH 181 


In that early day, he was numbered among that select 
company who saw the value of city parks. When he 
attended the ordination service of Washington Gladden, 
he strolled through the beautiful roads and fields of 
North Adams up among the Berkshires, and pointed out 
to the young Gladden the exact spot where the town 
ought to lay out a park. For years and in the face of 
opposition he urged the city of Hartford to set aside 
property for park purposes, and pointed to an unused 
part of the city through which a small river ran, as 
a most suitable location for a park. Finally the city 
awoke, and to-day, thanks to Horace Bushnell’s efforts, 
it owns one of the finest groups of parks of any city of 
America. 

In appreciation of his service the park commission of 
Hartford named a park after him, and it was created 
out of the very land through which the river ran and 
which he had urged the city to turn into a park. And 
before his death he was able to go out into Bushnell 
Park and watch the masons and carpenters at work upon 
the beautiful State Capitol, which stands upon the hill in 
the center of this park and overlooks the rolling hills of 
Connecticut. The city of Hartford in this way rewarded 
the citizen who put the gospel of Jesus Christ into the 
life about him and made of his neighborhood a better 
place in which to live. 

The trial of illness——In 1870 his sickness of twenty 
years began to draw to a close. He spent the summer of 
1874 in the beautiful little town of Norfolk with its tall 
elms and broad maples, and from the quietness of this 
_ place wrote to his wife, “I may last a year, or even five 
as a remote possibility, but I shall never be girded again, 
I think.” When up at Bread Loaf Inn among the moun- 
tains of Vermont, he wrote to a friend, “Going steadily 
down but continuing to work a little.” As late as 1875 
he used to get out of doors and see the rising towers of 
the State Capitol building in Bushnell Park. 


182 BUILDERS: OF Hh CHURCH 


April 8, 1875, C. A. Bartol, a Unitarian minister and 
lifelong friend, wrote a wonderful letter which should 
become a classic. Both men were waiting confidently for 
those hours of the setting sun. Here is the note: 

My Dear Frrenp: I hear of your increased illness. Accept 
my persuasion of your everlasting life and health. You and I 
believe in the same Being and Destiny. Should it be appointed 
for you to take passage first, take my love on board the won- 
drous vessel you sail in; and send such token as you may, back 
to my soul, of your blessed making port. 

From one to whom your inmost is dear, 


C. Av Barton 

So weak was Bushnell that he could not answer for 
some time, and when he did so, stated, “My boat hangs 
drowsily.” But Friday morning, February 17, 1876, it 
crossed the bar and put out for sea; yet ere he went he 
turned to those about him, this great man of the people, 
this hero of childhood, and said, “I have come along 
home.” 

Conclusion.— Wrote this man: “I have never been a 
great agitator, never pulled a wire to get the will of men, 
never did a politic thing. It was not for this reason, but 
because I was looked upon as a singularity—not exactly 
sane, perhaps, in many things—that I was almost never 
a president or a vice-president of any society, and almost 
never on a committee.” He was nevertheless a builder, 
and in that great palace of the souls of men which is 
fashioned into the likeness of the kingdom of God he 
builded a room called the Children’s Room, and so beau- 
tiful is it that they never want to leave but abide forever 
and forever. For besides Christ there is yet another who 
is glad they tarry in the Kingdom—and that is Horace 
Bushnell. 

Stupy Topics 


1. Describe the experiences of Horace Bushnell in trying to 
find his place in the world’s work. Discuss the need for and 
value of vocational guidance to the young men and women of 
our day. 


CHILDREN IN THE CHURCH 183 


2. What attitude did Bushnell assume toward the religious 
education of children? Discuss the validity of his statement 
that “The child is to grow up a Christian, and never know him- 
self as being otherwise.” 

3. If Bushnell’s position is sound concerning the religious 
education of children, what is the responsibility of the church 
in providing religious instruction for the children? 

4. To what extent has the church conceived religious educa- 
tion to be one of its major functions? Justify your answer. 
How many American boys and girls of school age are not 
receiving religious instruction? 

5. What was Bushnell’s attitude toward the  revivalistic 
method? Why do you agree or disagree with his position? 

6. Summarize the life and work of Horace Bushnell, showing 
how he too may be included in the great ranks of church 
builders. 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Munger, Theodore T.—Horace Bushnell. Houghton Mifflin 
Company. 
Cheney, Mrs. Mary A.—Life and Letters of Horace Bushnell. 


CHAPTER XIX 


DAVID LIVINGSTONE AND THE RISE OF 
MODERN MISSIONS 


Ln a little village upon the banks of the Clyde was this 
boy born, and into a very poor home, and he was ever 
after glad of the chance to have been reared in poverty. 
Having young blood running high in his veins, he held 
his own with the other lads of the village, but at the 
same time was very loyal to the church he later served 
so well. Once he memorized the 119th Psalm “with only 
five hitches,” and was known to be thoughtful when 
time for family prayers came in his home. At ten years 
of age he went to work in a cotton mill from six o’clock 
in the morning until eight o’clock in the evening. Then 
he would return home to study Latin by himself until 
late into the night, when his mother would come in and 
blow out his candle so that he would not wreck his 
health. He loved to take long hikes with his brothers, 
and was unusually lovable and helpful to his mother— 
though he did ask her to be sure the doors were locked 
when he mopped the floor! Swimming and fishing in the 
Clyde had for him unequaled delight. 

At nineteen he was promoted to a spinner, in which 
position he earned more money, which enabled him to 
attend classes in medicine and Greek during the winter 
months. Books of travel he loved, and science, though 
he was birched by his father for declining to read such 
works as Wilberforce’s Practical Christianity and other 
arid productions. Early in life he read ravenously the 
pioneer triumphs of the missionaries, and though his 
weekly pittance was limited, gave all of his spare money 
to their cause. 

184 


RISE OF MODERN MISSIONS 185 


The decision to become a missionary.—September 1, 
1838, he offered his services to the London Missionary 
Society. Upon his first appearance in public to lead a 
meeting, he announced the text, stared at his audience, 
and said: ‘Friends, I have forgotten all I had to say,” 
and hurriedly left the room! The Society did not feel 
such a man competent to preach, but permitted him to 
remain with them and study medicine for two years more, 
after which he received his diploma from Glasgow in 
1840. To China had he intended to go, but met Robert 
Moffat, who had been accomplishing such wonderful 
achievements for the building of the church in South 
Africa, and by this old saint was filled with zeal for the 
Negroes. 

Upon leaving home he sat up with his father and 
mother until midnight and then arose to take the train 
at five o’clock in the morning. His mother prepared 
breakfast, the 121st and 135th Psalms were read, after 
which he left home—never again to see his father. Some 
years later, when he was actually returning to England, 
his father lay dying. 

“Vou wished so much to see David,” said his daughter, 
who was taking care of him in his last hours. 

“Aye, very much! very much. But I think I'll know 
whatever is worth knowing about him. Tell him I think 
so when you see him.” 

But he was gone ere his son reached home. 

The first journey to Africa.—Arriving at the little 
city, Cape Town, he was not overmuch welcomed. Here 
he remained not very long, taking a trip of many hun- 
dred of miles north to Kuruman, where Robert Moffat 
had toiled for so many years. Burying himself away 
from all white people for six months among the Bak- 
wains, he studied theit language, and while he was learn- 
ing, practiced as a physician with such success that pa- 
tients walked one hundred and thirty miles to be cured. 
He called down upon himself the blessing of every home 


186 BUILDERS -OF*THE CHURGH 


for the skill he used in treating mothers at the time of 
childbirth. 

At the very beginning of his career in Africa he nearly 
lost his life while out hunting lions, for a large lion which 
he had shot jumped upon him, knocking him down, and 
bit his arm, so that he never could use it normally for 
the remainder of his life. And then, the previous shot 
taking effect, the mighty beast dropped dead. 

The daughter of Robert Moffat.—In 1844 he mar- 
ried the able daughter of the great Moffat—Mary. Hav- 
ing lived many years with her father, she knew the 
natives, the manner of the missionary’s life, and thus be- 
came a great help to Livingstone, who for his part loved 
her most devotedly. Soon after their marriage they 
moved north into wilder country and the chief of the 
Sechele tribe was converted. He offered his services to 
Livingstone, saying, “I can do nothing except by thrash- 
ing them; and if you like, I shall call my head-man, and 
with our whips of rhinoceros hide we will soon make 
them all believe together.” Needless to say, his offer was 
not accepted. 

At this time Livingstone and Oswald, a friend who 
accompanied him, discovered the Zambesi River, one of 
the mightiest rivers in the world, which drains the great 
interior of Africa, and for this Queen Victoria rewarded 
the missionary with a gift of money which helped him 
on with his work. 

The second journey.—Returning north a second time 
from Cape Town, Livingstone made up his mind to trace 
the mighty Zambesi River to its source, and owning the 
firm friendship of Sekeletus, the chief of the tribe of the 
Makololo, he set out with a large band of Negroes, up 
the Zambesi and over the mountains to Loanda, a small 
town upon the Atlantic seaboard. He crossed the moun- 
tains and left the basin of the Zambesi, and although after 
a long while he himself fell ill with the dreaded African 
fever, from which he was never afterward free, he 


RISE OF MODERN MISSIONS 187 


reached the seacoast, where he found letters waiting him 
from his wife. It was a sick man who reached Loanda, 
and for weeks this prostrated explorer remained in bed, 
where he was gently nursed by the British consul of 
this fort. 

Although he was now a person of world renown, he 

attended to his mail, sent reports to the scientific societies 
of Britain, and then—because he had promised his friend 
Sekeletus that none of his men should be deserted—he 
started back to Linyante, the largest village of the Mako- 
lolo, and mid dangers, hardship and drownings, reached 
the native village, where he was received with great 
joy. 
Victoria Falls—For weeks he rested at Linyante in 
the very heart of Africa (see map facing page 188) and 
planned to continue his venturesome journey to the east, 
following the Zambesi River, to discover whether it did 
not flow into the Indian Ocean. Traveling over the flat 
plains, in the far distance they saw a huge column of 
either smoke or mist rising high into the heaven, and as 
they drew nearer, heard the noise of water. It proved to 
be the greatest waterfall in the world, with a volume of 
water far in excess of that which flows over Niagara. 
Livingstone christened these marvelous wonders the 
“Victoria Falls,” in honor of the English queen; then he 
continued his trip down the river to the settlement of 
Tette, where he left his natives and then went down to 
the ocean. During these years he had crossed through 
Africa from Loanda on the west coast of Luabo at the 
mouth of the Zambesi River upon the east coast, and his- 
torically was the first white man to explore these un- 
known regions, greater than the width of the North 
American continent. 

Home again.—Arriving home in 1857, the first thing 
he did was to go straight to that brave woman who had 
not seen her husband in five years—Mary Livingstone. 
Then he visited his old mother, who naturally was over- 


188 BUILDERS OF THES‘ CHURGH: 


joyed to see him again. To Africa many years before 
an unknown man had gone, but now he returned to’ 
Britain to discover himself to have become the most 
famed man of that generation in the British Empire. 
Honors were heaped upon him at every turn: The 
Royal Geographical Society gave him a gold medal in 
appreciation of the work he had done for science during 
his trips; the great London Missionary Society held a 
special meeting for him; the freedom of the city of Lon- 
don was presentedhim in a gold box; Glasgow gave him 
the freedom of the city and a gift of two thousand pounds 
raised by popular subscription in addition thereto; and 
Oxford and Cambridge rivaled one the other in bestowing 
upon him degrees. He published a book of his travels 
which brought him a modest fortune, was sought out by — 
the prime minister, Lord Palmerston, and afterward was . 
interviewed by none other than the queen herself. The 
British Admiralty offered him anything he wanted. But 
he desired one thing only—to have the Africans know 
Jesus Christ’s way of living; so, after resting for a few 
months, took his faithful wife and youngest child with 
him and returned to Africa to make further explorations 
and take his Makololo friends back from the eastern 
coast to their home in the interior of the continent. 
Slavery.—One of the reasons why Livingstone re- 
turned to Africa was to interest his fellow countrymen — 
in the awful curse of the slave traffic and to get them to 
see the misery it wantonly inflicted upon the Negroes. 
When first he had entered Africa he had seen the Boers 
raid native villages, carry off even little children into 
slavery. He mentioned in his diary one very little child 
slave who had been permitted to fall into the fire and 
whose burns were unattended until it was restored by 
him to its mother. During all his travels the things that — 


made him most suffer were the brutalities related to the 


slave trade. In the south the Boers indulged in it, in~ 
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RISE OF MODERN MISSIONS 189 


larly to the sea, while about the great lake region toward 
the east the Arab cruelly took his toll of African life. 
Previous to the approach of the white man these people 
had been of a merry disposition, but through all his 
journeyings David Livingstone heard the lash of the 
white men’s whip through the paths of the still forests 
down to the shores. It was slavery, and he cursed it 
with a bitter curse. 

Once he caught a woman beating her little child slave 
and severely reproved her. “One of the men,” said he, 
“picked up a little girl deserted by her mother; as she 
was benumbed by cold and wet, he carried her, but 
when I came up he threw her into the grass. I ordered 
the man to carry her, and we gave her to one of the child- 
' less women.” Wherever he went he was giving his heart 
to the slaves and doing what he could to alleviate their 
hardships. After a terrible battle in the interior, he saw 
over three hundred blacks drown in the river, driven 
there by the slavers who sought to place them in bondage, 
and in his journal cried, “Oh, let thy kingdom come!” 

The first thing he did in England was to see the prime 
minister to learn if something could not be done to 
crush this nefarious traffic, but Palmerston was cold. In 
Bristol he attacked the slave trade with such severity as 
to draw a reply from a representative of the Portuguese 
| government who asserted that Livingstone, under the 
pretext of spreading the work of God and advancing 
science, was actually causing a loss of commerce in the 
provinces by condemning the slave trade. Men, then, 
as now, often put trade profits before Christian principles. 

With infinite pathos he once wrote: “The strangest dis- 
ease I have seen in this country seems really to be broken- 
heartedness as it attacks only the free who are captured, 
and never slaves; it seems to be really broken-hearted- 
ness of which they die. Even children who showed 
wonderful endurance in keeping up with the chained 
gangs would sometimes hear ‘the sound of dancing and 


Igo BUILDERS OPS HE CHURGH 


the merry tinkle of drums in passing near a village’: then 
the memory of home and happy days proved too much for 
them; they cried and sobbed, the broken heart came on, 
and they rapidly sank.” 

The Livingstone home.—Africa called, and so this 
hero left England and all the honor achieved for the Dark 
Continent in 1859, but before going wrote letters to all 
his children and to Tom, his son, in which he said, “Avoid 
and hate sin and cleave to Jesus as your Saviour from 
guilt.” Livingstone loved his children, but he never 
knew what the happiness of home life really was. His 
youngest daughter was a year in the world before he 
heard of her, and many bitter moments of loneliness did 
Mary Livingstone spend when her husband was away. 
But when he returned there was much jolly fun, and 
Mrs. Livingstone said to her husband only a few days 
before her death: “You must always be as playful as 
you have always been. . . . I have always believed it 


to be the true way, to let the head grow wise, but keep — 


the heart young and playful.” 

Soon after setting out for the east coast of Africa, 
however, the fever came, and on April 21, 1863, she was 
stricken and being unable to endure further toil, God 
took her. Livingstone, who had braved so many dangers 
and faced so many deaths, could not face this terrible 
affliction, and utterly broke down, weeping as a child, and 
in the moment of agony the great secret desire of his 
lonely heart came out. “Oh, my Mary, my Mary! how 
often we have longed for a quiet home since you and I 
were cast adrift at Kolobeng!’ With her going, this 
mighty pioneer knew that the last hope of his life for a 
quiet home had departed forever. 

The third journey.—With his determination un- 
abated by grief, Livingstone returned to Linyante with 
the men who a few years before had left with him for 
the coast. With him, he brought a steam yacht named 
Lady Nyassa which he hoped to use to steam up the 





RISE OF MODERN MISSIONS IQl 


Zambesi and up the Shire River into the vast Lake 
Nyassa. With this boat he could do little but explore 
further the many tributaries of the Zambesi, and then 
afoot he discovered the mighty lake itself. He found that 
there were larger and more lakes to the north, and it be- 
came his ambition to discover these too; but before he 
could do so the government at home had recalled the 
expedition, and since Livingstone had put much of his 
money into his boat, he was obliged to sell it. 

The geographical problem.—Though Livingstone 
had brought more information concerning Africa to the 
world than any other man previous to his day, yet certain 
facts were greatly desired by the scientists of that time. 
They did not know where the great interior watersheds 
of Africa were located. The man who could accurately 
determine this was to achieve great fame. And the mis- 
sionary too knew if these facts could be determined, that 
commerce would be that much more possible with the 
interior of Africa and that civilization might have oppor- 
tunity to bring its blessings to these black people who 
were being enslaved by the traders. 

The fourth journey.—Remaining in England only a 
short time, he kissed his youngest girl farewell and set 
forth. Landing near Zanzibar, he pressed inland to the 
northwest (if you will look at the map you may trace all 
this journey) in order to learn more concerning the group 
of these vast fresh-water lakes. He ran upon the trail 
of the Arabs, and then worse troubles than ever began: 
his goat was stolen, so that he was deprived of his one 
luxury—milk. Food ran short and he wrote, “I took up 
my belt three holes to relieve hunger.’ In 1867 his 
medicine chest was stolen—a very serious loss at that 
time! Rheumatic fever again beset him, he ate the hard 
maize, which broke off most of his teeth and made the 
others drop out; but still he determined to get the loca- 
tion of these watersheds. He came across an Arab trader 
who gave him some vermicelli, oil and honey—the first 


192 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


he had eaten in two years—and his servants constantly 
betrayed him and proved unreliable and disloyal through- 
out the entire trip, and when they were with him used his 
animals brutally and seized every opportunity to steal 
from him or the natives among whom they traveled. 

Stanley and Livingstone.—So deep did Livingstone 
penetrate the forests that some Arabs falsely spread the 
rumor that he was dead. One expedition came from 
England to find him, but failed. Meanwhile Livingstone 
pressed on, and stated if he found the sources of the Nile, 
he would return home never more to travel, for the 
end of his strength was near. His supplies ran out and 
he was forced to return to Ujiji, where five thousand 
yards of calico and seven hundred pounds of beads were 
stored. Upon arriving at this town he found that the 
Shereef of Ujiji had stolen all his goods. Penniless and 
not knowing what to do, he now realized that if he re- 
turned home, he never would live to make the discovery 
and learn the facts of the Nile sources. 

The meeting.—While in this desperate mood, news 
came that a white man was journeying that way, and 
Henry Moreland Stanley, on the staff of the New York 
Herald, came into Ujiji and met Livingstone. The fame 
of this missionary had traveled round the world, and 
when Mr. James Gordon Bennett heard he had disap- 
peared, so determined was he to get the facts that he 
commissioned Stanley to find Livingstone and gave him 
twenty thousand dollars to make the trip. Stanley’s 

Stanley assumed that now Livingstone would return 
with him, but not at all—the warrior of Africa planned 
to get new stores and go inland again. After a while it 
was decided that these men were to part, and when 
Livingstone had written to Mr. Bennett, who sent Stanley 
to look for him, sent notes to friends in England, and 
especially commended his daughter, in that she had re- 
fused to urge him to return home until finding the source 








RISE OF MODERN MISSIONS 193 


of the Nile, he plunged back into the lake region. So 
great was this man’s spirit that Stanley was impressed 
with the earnestness of his loyalty to Christ and often 
spoke of it during the remainder of his life. When on 
the outskirts of Ujiji, the American went down over the 
hill toward home, Livingstone looked upon the last white 
man he was to see in this mortal life. 

The last journey.—During the last trip in the lake 
region his servants were most devoted, but the wet sea- 
son was on and the water terrible. So severe were the 
privations that he wrote that the trip “made my hair all 
gray.’ The fever returned with increasing violence. 
Christmas came, and in the midst of the swamp he wrote, 
“T thank the good God for the good gift of his Son”— 
and the day was celebrated. Rain, rain, rain! Terrible 
wind storms. One day all he recorded in his journal was 
the words: “Weary! Weary!” 

A few days before his last sickness he wrote: “Nothing 
earthly will make me give up my work in despair. 1 
encourage myself in the Lord my God and go forward.” 
But his sickness increased; he fell from his donkey be- 
cause of the loss of blood; he was carried in a litter and 
suffered pain all the time. When he saw that he could 
no longer travel he made plans for his servants to reach 
the coast. The night of May 1, 1873, he grew weaker 
and slept a little, and in the middle of the night they 
came in and found him kneeling at his bed. He had been 
in prayer and while talking with God, he died. 

The triumph.—His servants buried his heart in Africa 
as he had desired; but his body was properly prepared 
and carried back to the coast with remarkable fidelity 
by these loyal Negroes. Not one thing was stolen when 
they reached the coast. They brought him to England, 
where a nation, stirred to its very foundations, buried 
him in the noble Westminster. On his tomb they in- 
scribed words found in his diary: “All I can add in my 
loneliness is, may heaven’s rich blessings come down on 


194 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


every one, American, English, or Turk, who will help — 
heal the open sore of the world.” 

Victory of Christianity—He died not in vain. “I 
know I shall be cut off in that country which is now open. 
Do not let it be closed again,” said he to the Cambridge 
students. And it was so. 

What Florence Nightingale wrote to Livingstone’s 
daughter in the day of her sorrow is true to-day. 


“He climbed the steep ascent of heaven, 
Through peril, toil, and pain; 

O God! to us may grace be given 
To follow in his train!” 


Stupy Topics 


1. To what extent has the Christian Church fulfilled the © 
Master’s command, “Go ye into all the world and disciple all 
nations’? Let representatives of the various denominations re- 
port on the progress made by their respective denominations to 
the spread of Christianity. 

2. Why has Africa been the victim of exploiters since the © 
coming of the missionaries? Has the entrance of Christianity — 
into Africa been a blessing or a curse to that continent? Justify — 
your answer. 

3. Enumerate the handicaps which Livingstone faced in his 
work in Africa. To what extent were his fellow countrymen in 
England responsible for those handicaps? 

4. Trace on the accompanying map Livingstone’s journeys into 
the heart of Africa. 

5. Summarize the life and work of David Livingstone. How 
may we meet the challenge of his life, and the cause for which 
he died? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Hughes, Thomas—David Livingstone. 

Blaikie, W. Garden—The Personal Life of David Livingstone. 

Roberts, John S.—Life and Explorations of David Living- 
stone, 

Stanley, Henry M—How I Found Livingstone. 











eee LE Res 


GHARLES /KINGSLEY) As LOVER+ OF UTHIs 
COMMON PEOPLE 


SITTING at the breakfast table one spring morning, 
Fanny Kingsley reminded her husband of an old promise: 
“Rose, Maurice, and Mary have got their book, and 
baby must have his.’”’ The father made no answer, arose 
and went to his study, where, with door locked, he re- 
mained for a half hour or so and returned with the 
story of “Little Tom’ which was the first chapter of 
The Water Babies, which delightful book almost every 
American boy and girl has read. And Charles Kingsley 
—for it was none other than he who wrcte this wonder- 
ful story—dedicated it to his little baby boy, Grenville 
Arthur Kingsley. 

A poet has described Charles Kingsley as follows: 


“A righteous man 

Who loved God and truth above all things, 

A man of untarnished honor; 

Loyal and chivalrous, gentle and strong, 

Modest and humble, tender and true, 

Pitiful to the weak, yearning after the erring, 

Stern to all forms of wrong and oppression, 

Yet most stern toward himself, 

Who being angry, yet sinned not. 

Whose highest virtues were known only 

To his wife, his children, his servants, and the poor. 
And passing through the grave and the gate of death 
Now liveth unto God forever more.” 


To discover why Kingsley is thus described is our pur- 
pose in considering this chapter. 

Youth and college——Charles Kingsley was born in 
1819 in the vicarage of the village of Holne Devonshire, 
and lived in the vicinity of the great fens of England be- 


195 


196 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


fore they were drained and when the art of nature, good 
fishing, and remarkable opportunities for hunting were 
upon every side. He attended Helston Grammar School, 
and this “tall, slight boy” was very spirited, for as early as 
1836 he entered Magdalen College, Cambridge, where 
he excelled in mathematics and the classics and also made 
repute by his ability to boat, fence, box, and to go duck- 
hunting in the fens. Three years after entering college 
he met the young lady who was much later to be his 
wife, and afterward said, concerning the time when they 
first met, “That was my first wedding day.” 

_ Eversley.—Having made up his mind to enter the 
ministry, he was ordained and sent to the very humble 
little village of Eversley, near London, where he served 
as curate. Here this man was to live for thirty-three 
years of his life and be buried in the little village cemetery 
adjoining his church. Eversley was a beautiful little 
town, very damp, with the large rectory, the little quaint 
church, and the few farmhouses stretching from the 
village common in every direction. 

Affairs were in a sorry state at Eversley, for the 
church was empty while the public houses were full, 
and ignorance and drunkenness prevailed on every hand. 
The squire of the village paid more attention to his whips 
and hounds than to personal piety, and among his peo- 
ple gambling and vice flourished, while many of the lower 
element earned their living by smuggling. Into this 
situation Kingsley threw himself. The people soon dis- 
covered they had a parson who talked straight and then 
“hit straight,’ but who was unusually friendly and in his 
sermons used such simple language as they could under- 
stand. They discovered him to be their friend, for when 
times were hard he remitted the taxes which they were 
obliged to pay into the church; if one of them were dying, 
he would visit that home five or six times during the 
day. When a terrible epidemic of diphtheria smote the 
inhabitants in 1858, any passer-by could see this rector 





A LOVER OF COMMON PEOPLE 197 


with great bottles of gargle under each arm going from 
house to house teaching the folks, especially the children, 
a preventive treatment for their throats. He soon gained 
the affection of the humblest and held it in increasing 
degree with every passing year. 

The Christian socialist movement.—After the 
Napoleonic War Europe was in a fearful condition, and 
the people, not only in France but all over the Continent 
and England, awoke to the fact that they had not obtained 
the freedom and democracy which they had fondly 
imagined to be theirs. The divine right of kings was de- 
nounced and attention was centered upon the conditions 
of the masses of the population, which were in pitiful 
plight. In all the leading nations of Europe, save Britain 
alone, this unrest culminated in the Revolutions of 1848. 
But Britain was saved because her people had oppor- 
tunity to express this dissatisfaction openly. he 
poverty, filth, crime, drunkenness, and the like among 
the lower classes were beyond description and the con- 
viction came that some kind of a socialist movement in 
the political world was the only hope of the common 
man. 

Working Men’s Associations were formed. Kingsley 
worked hard to organize The Education League, which 
toiled for securing education for the masses of England. 
He was interested when the Cooperative Association of 
Tailors was organized for doing away with the dirty 
sweatshop system then in vogue, and in his pamphlet 
entitled Cheap Clothes and Nasty brought a fearful in- 
dictment against this system. He was among the first 
who believed in the “emancipated woman.” 

The great exhibition—So famed became Kingsley 
because of his progressive ideas in this realm that when 
The Great Exhibition, the forerunner of modern world 
fairs, took place in London, he was invited to preach to 
the public, and chose as the theme of his sermon “The 
Message of the Church to Laboring Men.” ‘The serv- 


198 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


ice was held in one of the larger London churches and the 
huge auditorium was packed with workers, who heard 
this nineteenth-century prophet tell them that the religion 
of Jesus was essentially one for the working men. After 
the service was over, the rector of this church rose in 
his place and rebuked Kingsley for the truth he had 
uttered, and the meeting broke up in confusion of mind, 
while the preacher began to realize an opposition and 
bitterness which remained against him for many years. 
He returned home late that night, and his wife heard 
him pacing the floor of his study into the early morning 
hours, and when breakfast was come he showed her this 
poem, which he had written: 


“Three fishers went sailing away to the west, 
Away to the west as the sun went down; 
Each thought on the woman who loved him the best, 
And the children stood watching them out of the town; 
For men must work, and women must weep, 
And there’s little to earn and many to keep, 
Though the harbor bar be moaning.” 


Living conditions in England— When this young 
preacher first went to Eversley, smallpox, diphtheria, and 
cholera raged at the usual and frequent intervals. An 
especially bad epidemic of the cholera swept over Eng- 
land in 1849 and Kingsley stayed up many nights with 
the mother of a large family of children and then broke 
down and was obliged to go into a retreat to recover 
his health; but the experience he never forgot, and from 
that day forward he became the sworn enemy of dirt 
and disease. 

Many people piously said that this plague was a visita- 
tion from God and urged the bishops of the church to set 
apart a day for fasting and prayer that the scourge 
might be abated. Kingsley was incensed and retorted 
that there was no need for a fast day, but that the church 
and the crown might well set aside a day for cleaning up 
the cities and building adequate sewers. With ringing 


. oe eae 





A LOVER OF COMMON PEOPLE 199 


voice he said: “I was yesterday with George Walsh and 
Mansfield over the cholera districts of Bermondsey; and, 
Oh God! what saw I! the people having no water to 
drink—hundreds of them—but the water of the common 
sewer, which stagnated full of . . . dead fish, cats 
and dogs, under their windows. At the time the cholera 
| was raging Walsh saw them throwing untold horrors 
into the ditch and then dipping out the water and drink- 
ing it.’ The wrath of the prophet was roused. 

The social gospel.—From this time forth Kingsley 
devoted his time to fighting disease and preaching health. 
He gave a powerful address before the Ladies Sanitary 
_ Association, and with eloquent words spoke of “the 
slaughter of the innocents,” seeking to defend the chil- 
dren from needless death. He preached upon such 
themes as, “Human Soot,’ “The Air Mothers,’ and 
“Sermons on Cholera”—all dealing with the gospel of 

good health. With a mighty oratory he challenged the 
_ thinking men of Britain with these words, “The people 
have huts for homes, no parental love, no thrift, no 
cleanliness, no modesty—how can the kingdom of God 
flourish in an environment such as this?’ The rooms 
were dark and damp, there were no back doors to many 
homes, the thatched roofs leaked and were ill smelling, 
and often the street drains during a storm would empty 
their contents into the living rooms of the people—and 
from such tenements rich nobility were making large 
profits. Kingsley insisted that Jesus Christ, by becoming 
a man, exalted human nature and therefore no man 
had a right to befoul it. 

The royalty and the social gospel.—Kingsley went 
into the House of Commons to urge that medical officers 
receive better salaries, since from their meager incomes 
they could not buy for the distressed poor such remedies 
as quinine and cod-liver oil. In 1859 he was invited to 
preach in Buckingham Palace before the queen and king, 
and spoke at that time upon public sanitation. Brave 


200 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


man! In 1871 the Prince of Wales nearly died of the 
fever, and upon his recovery Kingsley preached a 
magnificent sermon at Saint James Chapel upon sanitary 
reform, and reminded his audience of what would have ~ 
been the consequence had the pestilence been fatal to the 
royal family. 

The opposition.—One must not think that Kingsley 
did all this work without opposition. When he wrote 
a novel entitled Yeast, which described country and rural 
society with its wicked squire who bought his seat dis- 
honestly in the House of Commons, with its indictment of 
the poor housing conditions, with the poverty of Chris- 
tians, with its advocacy of a cleaning up of church life 
and rural life, a veritable storm broke about the author’s 
head. Later, when he sought a publisher to produce 
another novel, Alton Locke, so bad was the reputation of 
the writer of Yeast that no publisher wished to take the 
responsibility, and it was only with the assistance of 
Thomas Carlyle that he was able at last to get a printer. 

Kingsley was condemned as an “immoral” writer, and 
when some friends proposed that Oxford honor him 
with an honorary degree, this was refused to the ever- 
lasting hurt of Oxford. He was forbidden to preach 
by the Bishop of London in any church of that diocese, 
and though he fell ill under this abuse and looked for 
a pupil who might add somewhat to his income, he could 
obtain no pupils because he was so disliked. 

The temptation to back down.—Many friends urged 
him to stop talking about these evil conditions in Eng- 
land, saying he would ruin his chances for preferment in 
the church. Cease to support the poor—that was the 
desire of friends. But Kingsley, fighting with his back 
to the wall, was made of different stuff. “. . . I will 
not be a liar. I will speak in season and out of season. 
IT will not shun to declare the whole counsel of God. My 
path is clear and I will follow it.’ How much like 
Jesus he was! 








A LOVER OF COMMON PEOPLE 201 


And to all who would not harken he said: “Woe unto 
him that buildeth a wide house and large chambers and 
cutteth him out windows; and ceileth it with cedar, and 
painteth it with vermilion, but forgetteth to judge the 
cause of the poor and needy. Shall I not visit for these 
things? saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on 
such a nation as this?” 

Charles Kingsley’s home life.—Regardless of how 
cold was the world without, the Kingsley home was al- 
ways warmed by love within. The rector took occasion to 
see that his children had the best of the home, the sunniest 
and largest rooms, and built outside for them a hut where 
they could keep their toys, books, etc. Every Sunday morn- 
ing the children bedecked the graves beside the church, 
and at last the people of the parish caught the sentiment 
and gladly joined with them in this rite of beauty. Sun- 
day was always a happy day with its books and pictures. 
No corporal punishment marred that home and no multi- 
plicity of small rules, for Kingsley often used to say, 
“T wonder if there is so much laughing in any home in 
England as in ours.” 

From ostracism to popularity.—After being invited 
to preach before the queen, as has been noted, the tide 
against Kingsley turned and he was invited to preach at 
Saint Mary's, Cambridge, where he made a profound im- 
pression upon the students. In 1863 he was elected to the 
distinguished honor of becoming a Fellow of the Royal 
Geological Society. The Philosophical Institute of Edin- 
burgh invited him to give four lectures before that body. 
In a letter written to his wife just before going into the 
lecture hall he told her that he actually cried from nerv- 
ousness. The man’s strength was broken in the fight— 
but the lectures were a tremendous success. And at 
length he was elected regius professor of modern history 
at Cambridge University, and while holding this pro- 
fessorship—which he did with great honor—he was 
obliged to give a course of lectures to the Prince of Wales, 


202 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


who later became Edward VII, King of England, Scot- 
land, and Ireland. 

Canon of Chester.—Honors increased and the prime 
minister proposed his name to the queen to become 
canon of the Cathedral at Chester. He accepted this 
office, and for three years renewed the religious life of 
the cathedral and built himself into the affection of the 
young men and women of that place. During all that 
time he never forgot Eversley. 

Friendships.—Always without revenge for the cruel- 
ties he had suffered because of his friendship for com- 
mon men, when humanity turned toward him he wel- 
comed it. The time came when great men loved to 
count him among their acquaintances. Elizabeth and 
Robert Browning, those poet philosophers, were friends 
of his. Charles Bunsen, the famous French scientist, 
corresponded with him regularly. Bishop Wilberforce, 
was always in his support, while Max Muller, the great 
authority upon Oriental life, married into his family. 
He and Alfred Tennyson held helpful conversation. He 
became as greatly esteemed as previously he had been 
eschewed. Toward the end of his life he was elected 
Canon of Westminster, where he preached in the great 
Westminster Abbey two months of the year to vast 
throngs of people. 

Trip to America.—So weak did he become after his 
election to Westminster that it was thought best for him 
to take a trip to America. The American people had not 
forgotten his friendliness when there was a cotton short- 
age in and about Manchester and Liverpool during the 
American Civil War, and how Kingsley advocated friend- 
ship for America, and how the children of Eversley 
brought their money weekly for relieving the suffering. 
He was welcomed by a delegation which met him at the 
pier in New York even before he landed. Harvard re- 
joiced to see him; he spent one night with Mr. Samuel 
Bowles, then famous editor of the Springfield Republican, 





A LOVER OF COMMON PEOPLE 203 


was honored by being invited to open the House of 
Representatives at Washington with prayer, was greeted 
heartily by President Ulysses S. Grant, and held an en- 
thusiastic conversation with the like-spirited Charles 
Sumner only one hour before that great statesman was 
smitten down to his death at the capital. 

Traveling west, he rejoiced in the beauties of the Berk- 
shires as well as the Rockies and spent one Sunday with 
a party in the beautiful Yosemite Valley, where he 
preached to them from Psalm 104, verses ten to eighteen, 
which section begins with the marvelous picture of God 
in his creation: 


“He sendeth the springs into the valleys, 
Which run among the hills. 
They give drink to every beast of the field.” 


At the foot of Pike’s Peak, he was taken with pleurisy 
and was obliged to rest there for some time, but as soon 
as he could recover for the journey he set out for be- 
loved Eversley. 

The last year.—Taking up his preaching again at 
Westminster, he found the huge place filled with peo- 
ple to listen to his message. But, alas! all who looked 
saw a broken man, a man worn out with doing good. 
At what proved to be his last sermon in the great Abbey 
he concluded with the words: “And therefore let us say 
with utter faith, ‘Come as thou seest best—but in whatso- 
ever way thou comest—even so come, Lord Jesus.’”’ 

Just before Christmas, half sick himself, he faced a 
serious illness which entered his home and threatened the 
life of his beloved wife. It was a mighty fight, and he 
did his best to keep up the spirit of each person in the 
house, and in his weakness administered the communion 
to all, until his own strength failed and he fell ill him- 
self. 

The congregations of the cathedrals of Chester and 


204 BUILDERS OF THE GHURGEL 


Westminster prayed daily for the lives of Charles and 
Fanny Kingsley, and though his wife recovered, his own 
body was too shattered. He arranged his own funeral 
service and asked that there be no paraphernalia, no 
carriages, and that no nobility, but, rather, that six 
iaboring men of beloved Eversley carry him to his grave. 
During his last day on earth, when he thought there was 
no one in the room, he was heard to utter these majestic 
lines which from ancient days have fallen from the lips 
of men: “O Lord most holy, O God most mighty, O Holy 
and merciful Saviour, thou most worthy Judge eternal, 
suffer us not at our last hour, for any pains of death, 
to fall from thee,” and later in the day he fell asleep. 

The honor.—They wanted to bury him in the great 
Westminster, where for these centuries the royal dust of 
England’s kings has lain; but he would not have it so, and 
it came to pass that six laboring men carried him to a 
corner of the little burying lot next to the church at 
Eversley. There they laid him away. There they raised 
a stone, and upon the stone his wife inscribed those mar- 
velous words, “Amavimus, Amamus, Amabimus’—“We 
have loved, we love, we shall love.” 

If you will go to Westminster, you will find two 
statues which will be of especial interest—the bust of 
Frederick Dennison Maurice, and right by his side that 
of his beloved disciple—Charles Kingsley. While gazing 
thus, the words of Max Miller will come to mind: “Fame 
for which he cared so little has come to him. His bust 
stands in the Baptistry of Westminster Abbey, by the 
side of his friend Frederick Maurice.” 

But his spirit will not be in the old Abbey. For to this 
very day it wanders throughout Britain. 


Stupy Topics 


1. Describe in detail the industrial conditions in England prior 
to 1848. Compare the status of women and children in industry 
at that time with their present status. 


Se 


Se ee a ee 


= S 


ee ee 





A LOVER OF COMMON PEOPLE 205 


2. State specific reasons why the Church then and now should 
interest itself in the improvement of industrial conditions. 

3. In what ways were the industrial conditions prior to 1848 
reflected in the living conditions of the working class? 

4. What was the content of the social gospel preached by 
Kingsley and what influence did it have in relieving the social 
evils of his day? 

5. Discuss the opposition which Kingsley confronted and the 
manner in which he overcame it. 

6. What effort is the modern church making to improve indus- 
trial relations and the conditions under which men, women, and 
children labor? 

7. What should be the attitude of modern Christians toward 
labor problems? What is your attitude and is it in keeping with 
Christian principles? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Stubbs, Charles William—Charles Kingsley and the Christian 
Socialist Movement. 

Edited by his wife—Charles Kingsley, His Letters. 

Kingsley, Charles—Water Babies. 


CHAPTER XXI 


ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE AND THE 
THEORY OF EVOLUTION 


Most troublesome to the life of the church was the 
new study of science, for the nineteenth century was to 
reveal a brilliant series of discoveries and inventions 
which should dazzle the imagination. In the midst of 
this progress lived Alfred Russel Wallace. He was con- 
temporaneous with Charles Kingsley and met that gentle- 
man once at Oxford, having had a most delightful conver- 
sation upon themes of interest to them both. 

Born into a refined but humble home at the beginning 
of the nineteenth century, Alfred Russel Wallace be- 
came acquainted with all of the hardships of that rugged 
day. His father and mother were very devotional, and 
religion was a joyous thing in their home. At an early 
age he attended the village school in Hertford, but was 
a pupil of only ordinary capacity. A teacher who limped 
because one leg was shorter than the other spent more 
time administering discipline in that school than in mak- 
ing knowledge fascinating. 

To London and surveying.—At an early age Wallace 
was obliged to leave school, and he set out for London 
to master some indoor trade; but he could not stand the 
indoor confinement, with the result that he soon left this 
shop and went about seeking work. His older brother, 
being a surveyor, Alfred begged to be permitted to come 
with him and learn this science. Reveling in nature, he 
noted the varieties of rock, the abundance of flowers, the 
formation of the hills and valleys and frequently used to 
go hunting with some of the rich landowners whom he 
casually met while engaged at his tasks. 

Trip to the Amazon.—Since a lull had come in the 

206 








THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION 207 


surveying, Wallace sought to become an architect and 
builder of homes. He achieved, however, only a moder- 
ate success in this, and therefore decided to try his for- 
tune as a collector of birds and butterflies. With his 
brother, Herbert Edward, he set sail for Para, and after 
the completion of an uneventful voyage, having landed 
in this beautiful spot of South America, set out upon 
his work of collecting. For more than a year Wallace 
continued this venturesome task. Large and excellent 
collections of butterflies, moths, and birds were sent to 
England, where they brought a good price. 

The danger and escape.—Having gained valued speci- 
mens and greater personal experience, Wallace resolved 
to return to England, and set sail in a ship from Para, 
July 9, 1852. While in mid-ocean, this brig, laden with 
rubber, cocoa, and similar tropical produce, caught fire. 
A gallant fight was made to save the vessel, but to no 
avail, and late that afternoon the crew and few passengers 
were obliged to take to the open boats which were very 
leaky. During the night this huge hulk flamed. In a 
letter Wallace said, “It now presented an awful sight as 
it rolled over like a huge caldron of fire, the whole cargo 
of rubber, etc., forming a liquid burning mass at the 
bottom.” 

With little water, raw pork, biscuits, and some carrots 
this band of brave men set out for Bermuda, which was 
about seven hundred miles away. Ten days and nights 
they starved in this open boat before they were picked up 
by another sailing vessel which had not enough food for 
its Own crew. 

Wallace suffered a great loss because of this fire. All 
his personal collection which was with him was burned; 
also he had on board a valuable lot of parrots and some 
new specimens of monkeys and a wild dog, all of which 
were lost, so that by the time he reached London he dis- 
covered himself to be about as poor as at the time previ- 
ous to his making the journey. 


208 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


Introduction to scientific world—Nowhere does 
Wallace show that genuine humility which ever char- 
acterized himself more than in his meeting with another 
young scientist who was growing increasingly popular. 
“T always looked up to Huxley,” said he, “as being im- 
measurably superior to myself in scientific knowledge, 
and supposed him to be much older than I was. Many 
years afterward I was surprised to find he was really 
younger.”” At the end of a very long life, Wallace con- 
fessed his personal inferiority to Huxley because he 
knew no physiology, a part of the world of knowledge in 
which Huxley was very proficient. 

With Huxley’s children he had the greatest intimacy. 
Many years later Huxley, who was a very sensitive man, 
became angered at what Wallace had printed, and it 
seemed as if the friendship of these two great men 
would be broken; but again Wallace showed himself the 
great character that he was, and a short note written by 
him to Huxley succeeded in restoring mutual esteem. 

Another trip to the East Indies.—Wallace, touched 
by the lure of knowledge, felt that his success in col- 
lecting scientific specimens in South America warranted 
another attempt, and so resolved on going to the East 
Indies. The Malay Peninsula was a very rich field for 
such collecting, and few of the contents of its animal 
kingdom were known in Europe. Receiving a free pas- 
sage upon a government steamer, he traveled from Eng- 
land to Egypt, and after a tremendously exciting time 
there, when he nearly lost his life, went from Suez to 
the growing and beautiful city of Singapore. In the 
vicinity of Singapore and Java—both garden spots of 
the earth—he spent over three and one half years, and 
during that time collected eight thousand five hundred 
and forty specimens of bees, flies, beetles, moths, and 
butterflies. 

The venture of eight years.—For eight years he re- 
mained in the Far East, rising early in the morning, mak- 


ee a a —— " 


G Ve oe 








THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION 209 


ing hard trips into the jungles, catching his specimens, 
and returning late in the afternoon to work into the dark, 
until all these specimens were mounted and packed for 
shipment to England. 

At this same time he learned to have a profound re- 
spect for the missionaries of the Malay Archipelago. 
Their devotion which made them gladly live upon one 
hundred and fifty dollars a year among strange people 
was to him a source of admiration. This great scientist 
never slurred the sacrifices made by missionaries. He 
left that for smart men who remained at home to do. 
During the eight years that Wallace was in the Malay 
Archipelago it would be difficult to tell how far he 
traveled, for, if you will get a map, you will readily see 


that the distance from Singapore to the further extreme 
- of the island of New Guinea is greater than that from 


New York to San Francisco. The large islands of 


- Borneo, Sumatra, Celebes, and Java were visited while 


he went as far north as Jilolo and as far south 
as Timor. 
Birds of paradise.—During the entire eight years of 


- travel Wallace had heard much of the wonderful birds 


of paradise which travelers described with ever-increas- 


ing exaggeration. Since birds had been a part of the 


specimens sent to England, Wallace determined to take 
home with him a large collection of live paradise birds. 


On the eighth year he met with success. The un- 


friendliness of the native chieftains and the severe 


_ journey by land and sea to the habitat of these birds 


nearly cost him his life, yet he found some of these 
wonderful birds, fed them upon cockroaches during the 
journey home, and reached England safe. 
Evolution.—Charles Darwin, who had been brought 
up in a parsonage, gave himself to the study of science, 
and while Wallace was traveling, published a book en- 
titled The Origin of Species, which brought a brand-new 
truth to the minds of men, for in this book Darwin, the 


210 BUILDERS OPS THE VCH ORE 


brilliant author, set forth what he called a “theory of 
evolution.” By this theory he hoped to explain that the 
world was not made in the moment or the twinkling of 
an eye, but, rather, by a slow, deliberate, and majestically — 
orderly process; for he insisted that if we would study 
nature about us, we would see the evidences of this 
growth. The plants also were the result of this same 
process: they changed from generation to generation 
and from lower forms to higher. They “evolved” from 
simpler forms to more complex. 

This same method applied to animals, and in the early 
beginning they were of a low type, having small bodies — 
and little brains, and they grew with the millions of 
years, huge bodies but little brains, and finally developed 
brains and the ability to think. They learned to fly, and 
finally one of them—man-—learned how to stand upright 
and walk. Mr. Darwin also stated in this book that man 
once was a more ignorant kind of being and of lower 
type. He did not say that man came from a monkey, ~ 
but, rather, that the monkey family—labeled scientifically — 
the “primates’”—and the man family were, so to speak, — 
“cousins”; millions of years ago they had a common 
ancestor whose characteristics we do not know. 

Since some people had never thought that man changed 
at all from generation to generation, and since they had — 
not understood their Bibles as they read them, they felt — 
that Darwin was not only in error but was very blasphem- — 
ous and unchristian. 

Wallace discovers evolution.—While away upon his © 
long trip to the Malay Archipelago Wallace too had been ~ 
noticing the order in the world about him, and had been © 
closely observing the exactness in nature and the regular | 
and steady development from the lower form of life | 
to the higher. Knowing that he was on the way to a | 
great discovery, he remained away until he should find — 
what it all meant. 

One day while suffering from a sharp attack of fever, — 








THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION ary 


he went into a long meditation for some hours. Let him 
tell his own story: 


“One day something brought to my attention Malthus’s 
Principles of Population, which I had read about twelve 
years before. I thought of his clear exposition of ‘the 
positive checks to increase’—disease, accidents, war, and 
famine—which keep down the population of savage races 
to so much lower an average than that of more civilized 
peoples. It then occurred to me that these causes or 
their equivalents are continually acting in the case of 
animals also; and as animals usually breed much more 
rapidly than does mankind, the destruction every year 
from these causes must be enormous in order to keep 
down the numbers of each species. . . . Vaguely 
thinking over the enormous and constant destruction 
which this implied, it occurred to me to ask the question, 
Why do some die and some live? And the answer was 
clearly, that on the whole the best fitted live. Irom the 
effects of disease the most healthy escape; from enemies 
the strongest, the swiftest, or the most cunning; from 
famine the best hunters. . . . Then it suddenly flashed 
upon me that this self-acting process would necessarily 
improve the race, because the generation of the inferior 
would inevitably be killed off and the superior would re- 
main—that is, the fittest would survive.” 


And in this way the scientific principle of the survival 
of the fittest was born. 

Wallace wrote immediately to Darwin to ask if he had 
discovered this truth and it happened that while Wallace 
was thinking it through, Darwin arrived at the same con- 
clusion in his laboratory. 

The storm.—All through the civilized world there was 
a storm of protest against the statements of these scien- 
tists. Men of religion stated that science was false and 
sinful and would lead men away from God. The scien- 
tists, on the other hand, asserted that the men of religion 


212 BUILDERS OF THEAGCH URGE 


were bigots and afraid of the truth. Darwin especially 
came in for an amount of enthusiastic praise from men 
of science and for an equal amount of condemnation 
from the world of religion. Men had not yet learned that 
science is a glorious tool for discovering the truth of God, 
neither could they in those days conceive of the fact that 
God could work slowly and in an orderly fashion reveal 
himself by way of evolution as well as by any other route. 

Personal generosity.—It would not have been at all 
unique had Wallace claimed for himself a share in the 
distinction and honors being heaped upon Darwin be- 
cause of the discovery of evolution, and one would not 
have blamed him had he been a little jealous of his 
friend Darwin. But here again the greatness of the 
character of Wallace was revealed, for he came to the 
support of his friend, who was bitterly denounced in reli- 
gious circles, and loyally defended him. He even wrote 
a book entitled Darwinism, in which he set forth, ex- 


plained, and defended the teachings of his friend. Al- _ 


though to Wallace as much as to Darwin belongs the 
credit for discovering this law of the universe which 
makes life about us so much more understandable, yet 
he modestly went about his way. 

Although there is no longer a battle waging between 
science on the one hand and religion on the other, and 
although all sane men have seen that science and evolu- 
tion help explain to us how wonderfully God works, 
and although all great scientists know that without a 
reverence for God no scientific experiments are worth 
making, still, since the day of peace and progress in the 
religious and scientific world has arrived, and both 
science and religion are hand in hand working to find 
more about God, it is good to remember that individual 
who, in the heat of the controversy, forgot himself and 
rushed to the defense of his friend. A great discoverer 
who spent eight years of his life in the far lands of this 
world to find a truth was willing to lose all credit for 


Fe a 


ge OR ee ee es ee 


Se le a ee ee 


— 


) 
| 
| 








THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION 213 


it, if thereby the name of a friend might be fully honored. 
This is the secret of the greatness of Alfred Russel 
Wallace. “Mr. Darwin has given the world a new 
science,’ wrote Wallace, “and his name should, in my 
opinion, stand above that of every philosopher of ancient 
and modern times.” How much more generous could 
any human person be? 

The home life—After being away from England for 
so long a period of time Wallace determined never to 
leave the beloved island again—a determination which 
he later forgot—and set himself to the task of arranging 
his valued personal collection and doing a great deal of 
writing for magazines and scholarly journals. All 
learned societies in the scientific world welcomed him 
again to their fellowship, and he spoke with great au- 
thority in their midst. 

University honors.—Wallace’s continued scholarly 
defense of the theory of evolution and his many writings 
upon a vast field of scientific matters, soon brought him 
great fame. His reputation spread to America, and 
from all over the world learned men sought his advice 
and opinion, and because humble he found himself be- 
coming esteemed as great. 

The University of Oxford finally resolved to honor 
him with the distinguished degree of Doctor of Civil 
Law, and he was invited to Oxford to receive his dis- 
tinction. It must have been a gorgeous affair to have 
seen all the students and faculty with their brilliant-hued 
robes. Just before the degree was bestowed upon this 
man of the people, the university orator stepped out and 
said: “For having wandered long in early life through 
the forests of Brazil, and among those islands which lie 
beyond the golden Cheronese, and beneath a burning sun, 
he thought out and explained with wonderful insight the 
law according to which (as learned men now believe) 
new species of animals arise, namely, that a stronger and 
more vigorous offspring is left behind by those individ- 


214 BUILDERSSO RS CE EGR Kier 


uals whom nature has, in some way or other, best fitted 
to endure the vicissitudes of life. . . . When this law 
was discovered almost simultaneously by the dis- 
tinguished naturalist, Charles Darwin, neither begrudged 
to the other his meed of praise; and so high-minded were 
they both that each was more desirous of discovering 
new truths than of gaining credit for himself.” 

And the orator added that for this reason this honored 
degree ought to be conferred upon Wallace. 

A trip to America.—Responding to an invitation from 
the Lowell Institute in Boston to come and deliver eight 
lectures, Wallace determined to make a trip to America. 
Lecturing at Williamstown, Vassar, Harvard, Yale, and 
many other colleges, the students gave him a hearty wel- 
come. He thought the Capitol at Washington beautiful, 
and after being feted and honored throughout the United 
States and Canada, he returned to England, where his 
authority in the field of science was heightened. 

Wallace, the Christian.— Alfred Russel Wallace never 
carried his religion about in public—it was too rare for 
that. In his early youth, despite the universal custom 
about him, he concluded it was harmful and therefore 
wrong to smoke and hence never used tobacco in any 
form. At about this same time he became drunk with 
wine at a private banquet, and upon returning home re- 
solved he would never become a drunkard to please any 
man. 

In his early years he left the church, and confessed 
himself to be an agnostic. He was not certain about any 
religious truth. But when his maturity came and when 
he began to investigate the orderly world about him, he 
became convinced that behind it all must be a great and 
wonderful guiding Intelligence. He was frankly a Chris- 
tian. One Sunday, while upon his journey in America, 
he spoke in San Francisco upon the theme, “If a Man 
Die, Shall He Live Again?” Immortality was not diffi- 
cult for him to believe. Wallace is a clear proof of the 


ee 





THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION 215 


fact that one can be a truly great man in the world of 
science and a devout and sincere man in the world of reli- 
gion at one and the same time. 

The last days.—Living to a ripe old age, honors in- 
creased as the years came, and at last the king conferred 
upon him the great distinction of the “Order of Merit.” 
So infirm was Wallace that he could not go to court for 
the investiture, and the king sent Colonel Legge to per- 
form the ceremony connected with this honor. Some men 
would have felt their dignity increased, but not Wallace, 
who immediately after the ceremony sat down and wrote 
to a relative as follows: “Colonel Legge got here at 2:40, 
and had to leave at 3:20, so we got a carriage from Wim- 
borne to meet the train and take him back, and Ma gave 
him some tea, . . . and he showed me how to wear the 
Order and was very pleasant; and we were all pleased.” 

The democracy which stood him in stead during his 
youth did not forsake him in age. Though honored with 
the Order of Merit by the king of the Britains, when two 
very little children wrote to him, asking that he settle a 
dispute regarding how many stomachs a cow had, he 
interested himself in their question and sent a letter as 
follows: 


PRCHESUCOWiFe fe cies bce ete ca oie oe 8 divowe bib ous 7 stomachs 
PUA GIECOW ove y Sissi iciabowisth a nie’ s\ isleste tia $0508 3 stomachs 
STIG MET ALITICr CUCOMW tig cites 8e2k cieieo'« 0 ore.5 « viene a0 4 stomachs 


And laughing merrily over his problem of subtraction, 
he sent the letter along to two better-informed little chil- 
dren. 

The world to-day needs more great scientists like Wal- 
lace; it needs men whose religion is as simple and sincere 
as was his. But in a generation when men strut and 
boast, when men brag and think themselves greater than 
their brothers, as a fresh breeze into a stifled room, so 
comes the aroma of an humble life such as that of Alfred 


216 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


Russel Wallace into a world surfeited with its own im- 
portance. And because he was meek men thought him 
great—and so does God. 


Stupy Torics 


1. How may a scientist such as Alfred Russel Wallace be a 
builder of the church? 

2. Name certain classes of scientists at work in the world to- 
day and show how they are advancing the spread of Christianity. 

3. What effect does scientific knowledge have upon one’s faith 
in God? in the Bible? Why should there ever have been any 
controversy between science and religion? 

4. By what method of investigation did Wallace arrive at the 
theory of evolution? Tell the story of his travels both in South 
America and in the East Indies. 

5. What is the theory of evolution as it was worked out by 
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace? 

6. What Christian principles stand out in the life of Alfred 
Russel Wallace, especially in his dealings with Charles Darwin? 
How may these principles be cultivated in the lives of modern 
builders of the church? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 
Wallace, Alfred Russel—My Life. 


Merchant, James—Alfred Russel Wallace. 
Wallace, Alfred Russel—The Progress of the Century. 





VHA TER XX 


GEORGE MULLER BUILDS A PLACE FOR 
CHILDREN IN THE CHURCH 


A FINE old English gentleman was making his way 
from the county of Wiltshire toward the city of Bristol 
with a little boy named John.1_ Now, John was just like 
any other boy who was eight years of age, only a little 
smaller in stature, and with this other difference: he 
was an orphan. At the age of six his mother had died, 
leaving him and a sister, and when he was eight his father 
died too. There was no mistake about the fact that this 
old gentleman—who, by the way, was his grandfather— 
loved him, for when death left him an orphan he was 
taken to his grandfather’s house, where his grandmother 
gave him every comfort and kindness that her very 
humble means could supply. Little room, however, was 
there in that quaint old English house, for a family of 
no less than twenty-four children lived there, and a little 
grandson, no matter how much he might be loved, proved 
to be “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” Then, 
too, though the master of this house was an expert hand- 
weaver, his weekly stipend never amounted to much more 
than two dollars a week, and that was not enough to feed 
twenty-four growing, hungry sons and daughters of his 
own. So with genuine regret this fine old English gentle- 
man decided that his grandson must leave home—and that 
explains why they were going to Bristol. 

Arriving in the city, these two made their way to the 
home of a unique man named George Miller, who had 

1This is substantially true, and the little boy is now my father, 


Mr. John Tucker, a successful business man living in Westfield, 
Massachusetts, and also a master builder of the church. 


217 


218 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


been settled in Bristol some years and who, because of 
his love for children, had given his life to making homes 
for boys and girls and babies who had neither father nor 
mother—who were orphans. Meeting this man with the 
quiet manner, keen eyes, and dignified side-whiskers, the 
solid and self-respecting grandfather said: “Mr. Miiller, 
this is John, whom I have brought to live with you. We 
cannot keep him any longer and his father and mother 
are dead.” 

Although John had an unusual amount of courage, and 
although he knew why his grandfather was bringing him 
to see Mr. Miller, yet it did not dawn upon his young 
mind what it all was to mean until after the long con- 
versation his grandfather rose to go. Then he knew that 
his own home was gone, his relatives were gone, and 
now the grandfather whom he sincerely loved was about 
to depart and leave him to face a strange world. It was 
too much. He broke down, and quietly sobbed and 
sobbed in the helpless manner of a bewildered boy. The 
unemotional old Englishman moved uneasily. Well did 
he know of the poverty related to his own large family; 
but beneath that solemn exterior he owned a heart tender 
as a child’s, and repented that he had taken the boy from 
his fireside. 

“Mr. Miller,” said he, looking down at the forsaken 
and weeping lad, “I guess I’ll take the lad back home 
with me again.” 

“He will be all right in a few minutes,” responded this 
benignant man as he reached into his pocket, where he 
regularly kept a supply of candy, and brought forth a 
few “sweets” for the boy who was crying. “He will 
soon be all right, and you can leave him with me.” And 
with these words the fatherly man took John into his own 
home, and the boy’s grandfather returned to his hand- 
looms in Wiltshire. Who was this man that without 
money and without price fed, clothed and taught orphan 
boy No. 72 for over six years, gave him a home with a 





CHURGHVPROTECGTS CHIEDHOOD 219 


host of other orphan lads, and finally turned him out to 
society with the knowledge of real Christianity and with 
the mastery of a trade? It was George Muller, and upon 
him hangs our tale. 

Miiller’s early life—Born in the little Prussian village 
of Kroppenstaedt, on September 27, 1805, George Muller 
was reared in the family of a tax collector. Although at 
the age of fifteen he was confirmed in the Lutheran 
Church, so little did this act mean to him that he turned 
swindler, cheated a hotel of its bill, and was sent to jail 
for about one month, in which place he boasted and 
bragged about his sordidness with the worst of felons. 

Rise of religious interest—In 1825 he visited a Mora- 
vian meeting, and the host of the house in which this 
gathering took place welcomed him in, saying: “Come 
as often as you please. House and heart are open to 
you.” Here the people knelt in prayer, and this very act 
made a profound impression upon Miller, who was used 
to seeing the haughty Prussian stand in prayer. His 
mind was riveted upon religious issues, with the result 
that he was soundly converted to Christianity. 

He entered the University of Halle, to prepare himself 
for religious work, arousing the wrath of his father, who 
desired him to enter some more lucrative type of activity. 
In rage his father withdrew all financial support, and 
George was obliged to tutor American students at the 
university to secure sufficient funds for his tuition. 
Among those whom he thus taught was Charles Hodge, 
later that influential scholar and theologian at the Uni- 
versity of Princeton. 

Reaching the age of twenty-one, Miller began to 
preach, and in his first sermon a prominent schoolmaster 
in Halle, a mighty cynic, was converted. 

London.—Soon his interest in missions brought him 
to the attention of the London Missionary Society, which 
invited him to London for the purpose of continuing his 
work and preparing himself for a missionary. Muller 


220 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


planned to go, but discovered he could not leave Prussia, 
since ie had not served his time in the compulsory mili- 
tary service demanded of every German youth by Prus- 
sian law. After repeated examinations, however, he was 
found so physically unfit as to be excused from such 
service and was permitted to leave his homeland for Eng- 
land. 

When he first arrived in London he failed to learn the 
English language thoroughly—a fact which he was forced 
to lament for the remainder of his life. His first effort 
was a small pastorate of some eighteen members. His 
flocks must have thought him a strange shepherd, for he 
would not allow parishioners to pledge him any stated 
salary, but, rather, preferred to trust God and believe his 
wants would be provided for. Nevertheless, a box was 
set up in the rear of the church, into which all who de- 
sired placed contributions of money and goods. Miiller 
never knew who was giving him strong support and who 
gave none, but he had enough to live on, and was em- 
barrassed by no rich laymen seeking to impose their opin- 
ions upon his conscience. 

The Scriptural Knowledge Institution, for Home 
and Abroad.—George Miiller became interested in the 
biographies of such men as George Whitefield and John 
Newton. That noble friend of children, August Her- 
mann Francke, who one hundred years previously had 
given all his money to founding homes in Halle for 
orphan children, especially fascinated him, and after 
reading the story of Francke through for the third time 
he determined to do something for the children about 
him, and from this resolve the Scriptural Knowledge In- 
stitution, for Home and Abroad was organized. This 
society, with such a long, clumsy name, was promoted by 
Muller for the purpose of getting funds to help children, 
and all who joined it submitted to most peculiar regula- 
tions: They were not to seek the patronage of the world, 
they were not to contract debts of any kind, they were to 








CHURCHAEROTE CTS CHIUCDHOOD 221 


circulate scriptures, and they were to keep the needs of 
the organization secret. 

With the support afforded by these people thus banded 
together Muller determined to gather the poor children 
from the streets of the neighborhood where he was then 
living, and, giving them a bit of bread for breakfast at 
eight o’clock, he sought to teach them the Bible for an 
hour and a half. Thirty to forty children in this manner 
were fed; but they became such a public nuisance as 
they gathered daily for their dole of bread that he was 
finally forced to abandon this plan. 

Condition of child-life in England.—While George 
Muller was making these experiments of feeding the 
children of the streets in the city of Bristol, whither he 
had gone to live, it must be remembered that child-life in 
England was at the time in a sorry plight. To be sure, 
Robert Owen, in the New Lannark Mills, and Robert 
Raikes, of Sunday-school fame, had tried to do a little 
service for the poorer boys and girls; but their efforts 
were as a drop in the ocean of childhood’s misery. The 
Reform Laws of 1832 had just been passed, but the 
famine conditions, the industrial maladjustment due to 
the introduction of the machine into English manufactur- 
ing life, with its consequent poverty, violence, to which 
- must be added the Corn Laws—all these things led up 
to the great crisis known as the Chartist Movement in 
1848. And until the crisis was over, the children, being 
the members of society least able to protest audibly and 
make their sufferings both seen and heard, were the ones 
most cruelly oppressed. 

Poor little Tom, the chimney sweep in Kingsley’s 
Water Babies, is not fiction, but, unfortunately, in very 
fact a type of unconscious brutality which was being 
practiced upon the childhood of that day. Extraordi- 
narily long hours of work, food without nourishment, 
disease, vice, and dirt—these were also the portion of 
the child. And if he perchance were robbed of father 


222 BUILDERS OR VRE heGr Gh ar 


and mother and obliged to make his own way in the 
world, God have pity upon him; his oppression was then 
the more severe. The orphan felt the pressure of the 
heel of neglect. When George Miller first became 
aroused in behalf of orphans it was conservatively esti- 
mated that there were more than three thousand six hun- 
dred orphans in England alone, who, since there was no 
room for them in the shambles of that day called “work- 
houses,” were forced to live in the jails with felons, 
vicious characters, and other criminals. The only crime 
which could be pressed against them was that their 
fathers and mothers had died! 

God only knows what might have happened to John— 
the lad mentioned at the beginning of this chapter—if, 
when his father and mother had died, his grandfather 
had had no friendly George Muller to whom the boy 
might be taken. 

Wilson street orphanage.—To cope with this na- 
tional distress Muller determined to open a house for 
orphans. He had no money at all to begin with, but 
determined to pray about it and then do the work if God 
sent the money. Holding a meeting with a few friends in 
Bristol, December 2, 1835, the following principles were 
adopted for the work contemplated : 


“1. That God may be glorified in so furnishing the 
means as to show that it is not a vain thing to trust in 
Him. 

“2. That the spiritual welfare of fatherless and 
motherless children may be promoted. 

“3. That their temporal good may be secured.” 


These were the lofty motives which prompted their 
praying about the work. They forever resolved never 
to ask any person for one penny—a resolve that was 
never broken. 

Without solicitation ten shillings and one volunteer 
were gained for the work. Shortly a poor needlewoman 





CHURCH PROTECTS CHILDHOOD 223 


gave them the amazing sum of one hundred pounds for 
an orphan Home, and by April, 1836, there was enough 
money at hand to open a Home for orphan girls, and 
with twenty-six orphans the work was begun. A few 
months later another Home was rented for babies whose 
parents had died, and within eighteen months, without 
solicitation, over a thousand pounds was given for this 
work, while in two years there were three houses, eighty- 
one children, and nine helpers. 

Miller asserted that the reason for the success of this 
work lay in the fact that he trusted God absolutely for 
aid and never asked any man for any support whatso- 
ever. An extract from his journal at this time expresses 
his method and motive: “Lord. Thy servant is a poor 
man; but he has trusted in thee and made his boast in 
thee before the sons of men; therefore let him not be 
confounded. Let it not be said, ‘All this is enthusiasm, 
and therefore it is come to naught.’ ” 

Prayer.—This humble man believed without any modi- 
fication whatsoever that God answered prayer and that 
he would support any enterprise which was really for 
the good of humanity. So certain was Muller that his 
own work was precisely what God wanted done that one 
hears him giving “Eleven Reasons Why God Should 
Answer Miller’s Prayers.” He had absolute and un- 
qualified belief that God would see to it that his work 
was carried through to a successful climax. Daily the 
workers met in the orphanage and prayed, but they never 
went out at any time to solicit money or other gifts. 

At the beginning of this work certain regulations were 
adopted which insisted that nothing should be bought, 
no matter what the extremity was, unless there were sums 
of money at hand to pay for it. On the other hand, it 
was insisted that no matter what the cost, the children 
must never be hungry or naked, and that it were better 
to close the homes than to bring misery to the little ones. 
With genuine emphasis it was insisted that no existing 


224 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


need was to be revealed to outsiders, lest this be con- 
strued as an indirect appeal for help. Finally it was 
agreed that the orphans were never to be told of the 
plight of their home; they were to be happy and have 
all their wants met. Upon this unusual platform Muller 
went ahead! 

The struggle—In 1838, at a time when there was 
not a penny in’ the three Homes which were then estab- 
lished, a friend of the cause inquired, “How will the 
balance sheet turn out?” 

Though in desperate straits, Miller replied, “It will 
be as the Lord pleases.”’ 

Upon another occasion, when there was not a penny in 
the treasury, a lady and gentleman visited the Homes 
and in the course of the conversation the gentleman said, 
“Of course you cannot carry on these institutions with- 
out a good stock of funds.” 

The quiet answer was, “Our funds are deposited in a 
bank which cannot break.” 

At still another time a friend wrote, “Have you any 
present need for the institution under your care?” 

To this simple request Muller gave reply as follows: 
“Whilst I thank you for your love, and whilst I agree 
with you that, in general, there is a difference between 
asking for money and answering when asked, neverthe- 
less, in our case, I feel not at liberty to speak about the 
state of our funds, as the primary object of the work in 
my hands is to lead those who are weak in faith to see 
that there is reality in dealing with God alone.” And 
again Muller sent this letter when there was not a penny 
in sight—brave man that he was. But somehow or other 
God took care of these children. 

Miller resolved to build a Home for his children out 
in the country, where there would be better air and oppor- 
tunity for the cultivation of vegetables and gardens. For 
this purpose tremendous sums were needed and, as usual, 
not a penny was in the treasury. 











CHURCH PROTECTS CHILDHOOD 22s 


The resolution.—Miiller first prayed about this matter 
and then determined to present his plans as soon as all the 
money necessary was at hand. In 1845, thirty-six days after 
the plans were made, he received what was then an im- 
mense sum, one thousand pounds, for the purchase of 
land, and soon afterward a brilliant London architect 
offered first to draw the plans and then to superintend 
the construction of the buildings without cost. 

Accommodation for three hundred children was the 
desire of Miiller, and if so large a building was to be 
erected, a huge amount of furniture was to be required, 
and in addition the sum of five thousand pounds yearly 
for upkeep. To these needs there was given no promi- 
nence, no circulars were issued, and no advertising was 
indulged in. Only a very intimate circle of friends knew 
of the wants, and they were sealed to secrecy with a 
promise to talk with none save God about this plan. At 
last suitable land was found upon Ashley Down, and 
after a wakeful night, the owner decided to sell it to 
Miller at almost half its real value. In June, 1849, the 
orphans, numbering two hundred and seventy-five, were 
moved into new buildings erected upon this land, all 
paid for and with a balance in the treasury. 

The development of. an institution.—With appetite 
for victory whetted, Miiller desired to build so as to ac- 
commodate one thousand orphans, and when eight thou- 
sand one hundred and eleven pounds—a tremendous gift 
for those days—was donated, this man was not in the 
least surprised. By 1866 no less than sixty-six thousand 
pounds was subscribed, and house No. 3, and then the 
construction of No. 4 was begun. 

Very soon after this there was a series of five houses 
upon Ashley Down, built of stone, scrupulously plain 
and without any adornment, and surrounded by their 
vegetable gardens. In these clean, well-lighted and 
spacious homes, over two thousand inmates were living. 
These happy romping boys and girls, well taken care of, 


226 BUILDERS OP (THEVGHURGH 


instructed in the Christian religion—these were the re- 
sults of Miiller’s trust in God. All these houses were free 
from debt, and living from day to day upon the volun- 
tary gifts of people who were never solicited in any wise 
whatsoever. 

The orphans themselves.—Those who lived in these 
homes were happy. To be sure, their lives were plain: 
They rose at six o’clock in the morning and had break- 
fast at eight. All children had to do some kind of useful 
work. Their food was simple but plentiful, and there 
was an abundance of bread, oatmeal, soups, rice, and 
vegetables. At Christmastide they had an orange each 
and—great luxury—some Christmas pudding. 

Seldom was it that any child was expelled. One boy 
who was said to be a “confirmed liar and thief” was ex- 
pelled at the age of eight years. For five years they had 
prayed over him, but so incorrigible was he that at last 
they brought him before the other orphans and, with a 
solemnity which must have been awesome to young chil- 
dren and akin to the rite of excommunication, they 
publicly expelled him. 

Abundant health prevailed in these homes. In those 
days of great epidemics the death rate was surprisingly 
low. When cholera, smallpox, whooping cough, and 


similar disease scourged the cities of England, it is fright- _ 


ful to imagine what might have been the result, had an 
epidemic laid its hold upon these five houses with over 
two thousand children living in close quarters together! 
But disease graciously passed by these thresholds. 
Source of the gifts—When once the Christians of 
England became aware of the spirit which dominated the 
work undertaken by George Miller they responded 
heartily. One widow earning eighty-two cents weekly 
gave five hundred dollars to this work! A dying lad 
sent a few silver coins brought to his sick bed by friends; 
a poor boy brought his watch; some lovers decided that 
the money they had saved for an engagement ring should 


a 





CHURCH PROTECTS CHILDHOOD Prag 


be given to these orphan houses. One man with seven 
children was determined that he would also support seven 
orphans in these homes. Muller, for his part, was very 
careful that only people who could afford it should give. 
One woman was in debt and constantly refused to pay 
her creditors. When she sent in a gift it was promptly re- 
turned to her. 

The triumph.—Thus from 1830 to 1896 this modest 
man of God built and constructed a place for children, 
and when, at the ripe old age of ninety-one years, he 
dropped to sleep, so literally had he practiced the prin- 
ciples of Christian stewardship that he did not even think 
the clothes which he wore were his own and, as a poor 
man, he left an estate not worth over one hundred and 
sixty pounds. , 

To be sure, his method of securing money was not the 
only way. Indeed, he would have done more good in 
the world had he frankly allowed others to know the 
weight of his financial burdens. But the fact remains— 
he did find a way to take care of his orphans. 


George Miiller, a Moravian minister, was a builder of 
the church, and as a master-builder he reared a place 
especially for children. So well did this worker fashion 
his part of the noble edifice that when John’s father 
and mother died, he was not sent to the workhouse with 
the three thousand six hundred other orphans; he was 
not sent to asylums, factories and sweatshops with the 
three thousand six hundred more orphans, but, rather, 
he was given a chance to become a good citizen, a useful 
artisan, and a noble Christian. His grandfather could 
do no more for him; but he was saved from the social 
mire into which so many orphans sank in the middle of 
the nineteenth century, because George Muller builded 
well—for him. And because George Miller wrought 


228 BUILDERS OFSTHE CHURCH 


well, John, now become a man, is a great builder in the 
church. 
Stupy Topics 


1. Describe the condition of children in England in the early 
part of the nineteenth century. 

2. What forces are at work in our modern life which pro- 
vide for the moral and religious development of childhood and 
youth? 

3. To what extent are the children of to-day the hope of the 
world? What is the church’s responsibility toward them, and 
how is that responsibility to be discharged? 

4. In what ways was George Miller a builder of the church? 
Summarize the contributions he has made to the Christian move- 
ment. 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Pierson, Arthur T.—George Miiller of Bristol. 
Bergin, G. Fred—Autobiography of George Miller. 


a ee Ee eee 


a ee Se ee 








CEA bik x Li 


WiLLIAM, BOOTH, OGRiTHE aGOSPEL. FOR 
QUIENES 


WuiLe David Livingstone was discovering Africa, and 
Charles Kingsley was engaged in making England a more 
healthful place for the farmers and tenants, a man ap- 
proaching the prime of his manhood was busy bringing 
the glad tidings of Jesus to the outcasts of that country 
and thence to the entire world. The spirit which 
prompted this man to give his life for the veritable “scum” 
of society may be best expressed in his own words: “The 
rescued are appallingly few, a ghastly minority com- 
pared with the multitudes who struggle and sink in the 
open-mouthed abyss. Alike, therefore, my humanity and 
my Christianity, if I may speak of them as in any way 
separate from each other, have cried out for some com- 
prehensive method of reaching and saving the perishing 
crowds.” It was this inner power of profound sym- 
pathy for every least child of the world that drove Wil- 
liam Booth to give his life to the organizing of the 
Salvation Army and to rescuing those who perished. 

Father and mother.—His father was a builder and a 
contractor, and when his business utterly failed and the 
crash came, his health broke, and he died when William 
was but thirteen years of age. 

For six or seven years William was apprenticed, but 
so disliked this servitude as to be overjoyed when the 
nineteenth birthday came and he was released from his 
apprenticeship—that horrible and smooth form of slavery 
which existed in Britain during the nineteenth century. 

Religious interests.—Although Booth was _ success- 
ful in his church work, it was not the same with his busi- 

229 


230 BUTE DERS ORSTHN GHUR Gm 


ness life. He refused pointblank to work on Sunday, 
and for this reason was discharged from his position. 
Above all else he desired to become an evangelist; but 
since the church forbade him to give much time to this 
activity, he left the Methodists. With a wife and four 
little children this courageous man set forth. 

During the first year he had a pretty miserable time 
of it, since he could not make up his mind exactly as to 
what he was equipped to do. At last he determined to 
go to London, and, entering the vilest portion of the city, 
there give himself for those who lived in misery. 

Work in the tent.—His first preaching was in a tent 
in the slum section—Whitechapel—and at the conclusion 
of the service he wrote to his wife, who had not yet come 
up to London, concerning the drunkards, paupers, and 
notoriously wicked folks, steeped in the dregs of their 
own ruined lives, saying, ““Those people shall be our peo- 
ple.” To the day of his death he never forgot this high 
resolve, and the people whom others neglected—the 
filthy, the criminals, the immoral, the insane, and the 
lost—for these, William Booth and his wife gave their 
very lives. 

The Salvation Army.—Many friends of perfectly 
good intentions urged Booth to form another church 
especially adapted for the lower classes of society; but 
he himself well knew that there were plenty of denomi- 
nations already, and refused such suggestion. “My com- 
rades, the formation of another church is not my aim. 
There are plenty of churches. I want to make an army.” 

To William Booth evil was a terrible force. It was 
concrete and personal. The devil led a vast army of 
fiends who fought against both God and man, and the 
only way in which God could win was to raise up an- 
other army of men who should fight on God’s side. For 
recruits there were drunkards, firemen, and fish-sellers, 
women of ill fame, and rough sailors. There were dock 
laborers and cab drivers. 


iii a 





DAES GUSPELSROR OU RGAS TS 231 


All who would enlist in this army were obliged to sign 
the Articles of War, which obliged the one who signed 
to keep away from intoxicants, to avoid bad company 
and evil resorts, and, finally, all who were recruited 
promised to devote all leisure time and spare money to 
the great war against sin. Carefully drawn up regula- 
tions were issued for the soldiers, and there were orders 
and regulations for officers and for field officers, to- 
gether with an elaborate system of inspection, and in this 
way Booth, as commander-in-chief, was able to know all 
that was going on throughout the entire army. The idea 
struck fire among the poor and ignorant classes. 

Continued growth.—No other large body of Chris- 
tians seemed especially interested in aiding the poor, the 
sick, and the low-down folks of the slums, hence the 
Salvation Army had the field quite to itself. Booth 
knew and preached mightily that God could transform 
the worst life that the world had ever seen, so that the 
humble poor believed, and the very people whom the 
élite of this world thought depraved, proved themselves 
open to the message of love which Jesus brings to all who 
will listen. 

The cab-horse.—So burdened was William Booth 
for these outcasts of society that he determined to do 
something drastic to gain for them the ear of the public. 
He wrote and published a book entitled Darkest Eng- 
land and the Way Out. In phrases that burned with 
indignation he ironically asserted that the poor of Britain 
had the right to treatment as good as that given to an 
ordinary cab-horse. Every cab-horse in London had a 
good shelter furnished him at night, while the poor often 
slept in gutters and upon the public bridges crossing the 
Thames River. Every cab-horse had enough food to 
keep him in health and strength, whereas babies and 
women and men who once had been strong, never had 
enough to eat, babies could not get the milk, fathers could 
not get the wheat, and from tuberculosis, famine, and the 


232 BUELUDERS: OF THE (CHURCH 


like they were dying by thousands. Every cab-horse had 
the right to work and earn the corn which he ate. And 
while this was true of the horse, there were unnumbered 
hundreds of men who could not possibly under any cir- 
cumstances obtain work and could not get the chance 
to win bread. 

Darkest England.—At least there were three million 
persons in England in abject misery and destitution, and 
Booth was very quick to point out that this was more 
than the entire population of Scotland. The figures 
used in this book cut the English conscience to the quick, 
and the truth literally burned its way into the national 
pride. The language was terrific. Booth quoted Bishop 
South, who said that children were “not so much born 
into this world as damned into it.””, And when the atten- 
tion of the reader was gained Booth proposed his remedy. 

He proposed that the people of England should build 
City Colonies, places of refuge right in the midst of the 
worst sections of the city, where men overcome by vice 
and drunkenness might flee for refuge. After these 
men were rescued they should be sent to Farm Colonies, 
places out in the country where they might get fresh air, 
good food, and a wholesome environment, and placed 
firmly upon their feet. But most urgently Booth insisted 
that after these men were placed upon a sound footing 
they should be given the opportunity to join an Overseas 
Colony, where there would be land and farm work of a 
pioneering sort offered them. Either in Africa, Canada, 
or India he saw great tracts of waste land regenerated 
into fertile valleys and hills under the efforts of such 
men. He closed this mighty work which indicted the 
English social system with a plea that little children no 
longer be born into an environment of immorality where 
they had no single chance to lead clean lives, and begged 
that something be done for the babies born to drunken 
parents who were reared upon gin and went down early 
into drunkards’ graves. The appeal was tremendous. 








CHEAGOSPED FOR OUTCASTS 233 


The message was like some mighty storm which broke 
over the heart of England and drenched it with sym- 
pathy on the one hand and with hatred on the other. 

The growth of unfriendliness—“‘We are moral 
scavengers netting the very sewers”—so spoke Booth at 
the very outset of his work, and it was true. And be- 
cause this man of the people went out into that part of 
society which was being neglected, he was severely criti- 
cized. With much justice he demanded of those who 
found fault: ““Why do not those who evidently under- 
stand so much better than we do how the work should 
be done, set to work and do it in their improved fashion? 

. Let them enter the great manufacturing towns and 
grapple with the rowdy classes of the cities or attack 
the godless crowds of poor Ireland. . . . Till they do 
this, and do it more successfully than does the Salva- 
tion Army, I do hope they will cease their efforts to 
draw off by their fears and suggestions the hearts and 
sympathies and cooperation of the few friends the Sal- 
vation Army has.” 

The publication of Darkest England and the Way Out 
seemed to bring all this criticism into action, and words 
of bitterness became transformed into deeds of hatred. 
Brutal mobs, encouraged by an unfriendly police, broke 
up his meetings upon the street. If the Army met within 
doors, these mobs smashed the windows and disturbed 
the peace of the worship. To be sure, one must confess 
that the members of the Army did some rather needlessly 
spectacular things; but this was not the fault of the 
General, who repeatedly wrote: “I wish we did not do 
so many silly things. I think I see a great difference be- 
tween manly, natural, bold, daring actions, and weak, 
frivolous, childish comicality.” But the mob never thinks, 
so Booth was blamed for everything. 

By 1879 affairs had reached a dangerous predicament. 
Booth’s followers would tolerate this brutality at the 
hands of the lawless mobs no longer. Bloodshed and 


234 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


death threatened. He sent an urgent telegram to Mr. 
Gladstone, who was then prime minister of England, 
which read, “Unless something is done, . . . there will 
be riot and bloodshed all over our land.” 

Unfriendliness of ignorant religious people.—Booth 
also felt the venom of orthodoxy. The Bishop of Carlyle 
said hard things against the work, and when certain self- 
righteous people began to call him a “disturber of the 
peace” and one of the “blasphemers of religion,” it must 
be confessed that.the General was deeply disturbed. The 
press, pulpit, and the rich all joined hands in deriding 
that for which this man had given his very life. 

The height of the conflict—By 1882 Booth was 
obliged to report that six hundred and ninety-nine peo- 
ple had been viciously assaulted because of their friendli- 
ness toward the Salvation Army. Two hundred and 
fifty-one of these were women and twenty-three were 
little children, and eighty-six had been imprisoned for 
the sole offense of marching in the streets and singing 
hymns. 

The attitude of Booth toward enemies.—Despite all 
this hatred, derision, and public slander, Booth never 
showed a yellow feather. He simply said to his fol- 
lowers: “We will go straight on.’ And they advanced. 
The great John Bright said to Mrs. Booth: “The peo- 
ple who mob you would doubtless have mobbed the 
apostles. Your faith and patience will prevail.” And 
this prophecy came true. 

Conditions were as bad as ever. There was one “Tip- 
ton Devil who had sunk so low that he sold his child’s 
coffin for beer.” The Army befriended him. An Army 
lassie took off her own coat one cold night and put it 
over a drunken woman’s shoulders, and that same woman 
later testified, “In that moment I felt the Salvation Army 
was something for me.” So it was everywhere that love 
was casting out hate and winning a great victory in the 
very midst of solid opposition. 


=> 


i 2 


i 





THE GOSPEL FOR OUTCASTS 235 


Child life-—Booth’s home was a very happy place for 
his children when they were young, and afterward, when 
the day came for them to leave, he longed for the time 
when they should return upon a visit. Notwithstanding 
the fact that one of his daughters went to live in America, 
another in Denmark, and at times all were scattered 

throughout the world, and Booth himself was very busy 
-at home, he always found time to write to his children, 
and up to the very day of his death sent them very long 
and affectionate letters. When his second son left the 
Salvation Army and founded another organization in 
America, it was the first break in the family, and in public 
his father said very little about it. 
Mrs. Booth.—One of the secrets of William Booth’s 
greatness was the fact that he married an unusually 
talented wife. While he was going through his most 
difficult oppositions she became ill with a cancer. In 
1888 her physician informed her that she was afflicted 
with this disease, and she said, “It seemed as if the 
sentence of death had been passed upon me.” She kept 
up a bold front, returned home, and in tears told her 
husband about the matter in a quiet manner. Said she 
to him, “Do you know what was my first thought? That 
I should not be there to nurse you at your last hour.” 

Catherine Booth is one of the great heroines of the 
church. Keeping at her work in the Army as long as 
her strength permitted and enduring the fiercest of 
agonies—for she would not take morphine to dull the 
- pain—she continued to cheer the men and women about 
her. Her pain quite broke her husband’s heart. “I am 
realizing as never before how much harder it is to suffer 
than to serve,” wrote she. For two long years this most 
distressing illness dragged along, and in her weakest mo- 
ment she issued a statement to the Army: “Now at His 
call I am going away from you. The war must go for- 
ward.” Brave woman! She would not stand in the way. 
But the hour came when at last she called her husband 


236 BUILDERS ORV THE GH OR Gr 


and taking her wedding ring from her finger, gave it to 
him—a token Booth treasured to his dying day, more 
than all else he owned. 

The church friendly.—After the publication of Dark- 
est England and the Way Out, leading men in the church, 
such as the scholarly Bishop Lightfoot, of Durham, ap- 
proved of his proposed remedies, while the Archbishop 
Taite, of Canterbury, publicly approved of the work 
which the Army was doing, and Earl Cairns, who was at 
that time lord chancellor, came openly to its support. 
Some legal battles were fought and important cases were 
won—all of which made the magistrates more careful 
to give justice to the members of the Army. 

The king honors Booth.—The “notorious honesty” 
which had characterized all the financial activities of these 
people, gained for them the confidence of the govern- 
ment. And when, in 1902, Edward VII personally in- 
vited Booth to the coronation ceremony, so great was 
this honor conferred upon the old leader that the last 


vestige of any notable opposition broke down completely. 


Foreign lands.—If Jesus Christ could help the down- 
trodden of England, he could also aid those of other 
lands. So the Army. was established in Sweden, Finland, 
Germany, and even in Australia and India. Booth had 
occasion later in life to inspect his work in some of these 
foreign nations amid great honors. In Sweden the police 


and soldiers came out to honor him. In Germany, at the 


age of eighty-one, he spoke to large throngs and told of j 


the fifty-five thousand fallen women who had been helped. 
“The deepest-fallen may rise again. He has only to 
step into the ranks of the Army which is marching up- 
ward to the land of grace.” This was his message, 
and rough hearts knew what he meant, and were made 
tender. 


In 1902 Booth, now an old man, visited America. — 


Many are living to-day who can remember this quaint old 
man who was féted wherever he went. Governors vied 


a ee ee ee 


THEYGOSPEL FOR OUTGASTS 287 


with each other in greeting him and the President in- 
vited him to the White House. 

An automobile was purchased so that he could travel 
about England bringing his message to the people. At 
the age of seventy-four he rode long distances by auto 
and made from three to five long addresses each day. 
Wherever he went the people looked at him with love. 
Little children called him “Old Father Christmas.” One 
old cripple was wheeled to the door of her cottage, where 
she waited many hours to see the General. By and by he 
rode rapidly past in his car, and this old soul cried 
out: “Now I can die happy. I have seen the General.” 

As the long years advanced, our old warrior had eye 
trouble and was obliged to undergo an operation upon 
his eye, which was not successful, causing him to lose 
the sight of this eye. The other eye was soon infected. 

Blindness.—“I cannot somehow bring my life to 
frame the word, ‘blind,’ he moaned. It was a sad time 
for this old hero. 

“You mean that I am blind?” said he to his physician, 
and when an affrmative answer was given, he again ques- 
tioned, “I shall never see your face again?” With much 
emotion the doctor answered him honestly. It was a 
terrible blow; but the mighty fighter for God, in the 
hour of his misery, turned to his son Bramwell and said: 
“Bramwell, I have done what I could for God and for 
the people with my eyes. Now I shall do what I can for 
God and for the people without my eyes.” 

William Booth was not ignorant of what it all meant, 
for very soon afterward he cried out loud to his son— 
how one pities him in the cry!—“Hold my hand. I am 
blind. Iam blind! Blind!’ 

Finis.—From these operations the aged saint never 
fully rallied. The day finally came, and his children were 
gathered by his bedside. He bluntly asked the doctor if 
this were death. 

“Yes,” replied the physician, “this is death.” 


238 BUILDERS OF THE CHURGH 


Eva, his daughter, had sent a telegram from America 
to Bramwell saying, “Kiss him for me.” 

Bramwell bent over his father and kissed him. One 
of his sisters said, “Kiss him for Eva.’ And the 
brother kissed him again, after which his great spirit 
passed into the presence of the Lord God, where there is 
no more death. 

Said an American newspaper, “Wherever men and 
women suffer and sorrow and despair, wherever little 
children moan and hunger, there are the disciples of 
William Booth.” Rightly could his followers say to the 
whole world the next morning after his death: “General 
Booth has laid down his sword. God is with us.” 


Stupy Torics 


1. What should be the attitude of the church toward all the 
people in its community, whether rich or poor, educated or 
ignorant? 

2. How did the Salvation Army originate and in response to 
what needs was it organized? 

3. What is the present status of the Salvation Army in 
America? What type of work does it do and for what prin- 
ciples does it stand? 

4. What part did the Salvation Army play in the World War? 
Interview some ex-service men in order to find out what their 
attitude toward the Salvation Army is. 

5. What sterling qualities combined to make William Booth 
a great force in the Christian enterprise? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Railton, G. S.—Authoritative Life of General William Booth. 
Begbie, Harold—Life of General William Booth. 


CHAPTER XXIV 


FRANCES E. WILLARD—A WOMAN BUILDER 
IN THE KINGDOM 


DurinG the long years through which the church had 
been in the building, woman as well as man had labored, 
carrying those elements which went into its walls and 
foundations, and as the years passed by, the part which 
woman took in the mighty enterprise became increasingly 
important. When one recalls here in our own America 
what Mary Lyon did for Mount Holyoke College, and 
what Alice Freeman Palmer did for Wellesley ; when one 
thinks of Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose Uncle Tom’s 
Cabin aroused so much hate toward slavery, and of 
Julia Ward Howe, whose “Battle Hymn of the Republic” 
sang of the new freedom through Jesus Christ; when one 
recalls those delightful hours given in the world of litera- 
ture by Louisa May Alcott he will then recognize that 
the church cannot forget the debt it owes to the woman 
builder. And if the work of Miss Jane Addams, in the 
Hull House of Chicago, which has brought joy and 
happiness to so many smitten and oppressed by the mis- 
fortunes of life, or the brilliant researches of Madame 
Curie, which has relieved pain and saved many lives, be 
considered, then one will readily learn that women are 
- just as valuable builders of the church as are men. Not 
least among the builders is to be found the name of 


Frances E. Willard. 


The life of the pioneer—Born of old New England 
stock in 1839, Frances—who throughout her entire life 
was known among intimate friends by her nickname, 
_ “Frank’”—proved to be much more lively than her sister 
- Mary, and believed herself capable of doing anything 


239 


240 BUILDERS JOP WEE OG Eh ix Gis 


her older brother Oliver could accomplish. Her father 
forbade her to ride horseback, so she learned how to ride 
upon the family cow. She then mastered the use of a 
gun, could climb trees, and cried for three days when her 
mother insisted that she change the style of her hair 
dressing, now that she had grown up. In her early days 
she carefully kept a diary which is remarkable for the 
insight it gives of her character. Various entries tell a 
big story: “Now I have got to do my awful needlework.” 
“T baked a cake and had no luck at all”; and she called 
spring house-cleaning that “scourge of mankind.” 

The passion for knowledge.—‘Frank’s” desire for 
culture and learning amounted to a passion. As a girl 
she spent hours writing in her journal about the first 
school which was to be built in her neighborhood, a log 
hut, and the night before school was to open could not 
sleep from mere excitement. When her first summer 
vacation came she cried, and circulated a petition asking 
if school could not keep during the entire summer! At 
the age of seventeen she attended the Milwaukee Female 
College, which was conducted by Catherine Beecher, the 
sister of the eminent Harriet Beecher Stowe, and though 
she had not much money to spend, stood high in her 
marks and loved the school life. Mike Carey, one of her 
father’s hired men, to whom she had been most friendly 
when at home, sent her fifty cents at this time to spend 
as she desired—all of which secured a ticket to the 
menagerie, a notebook and some peppermint candy! 

“Frank” becomes of age.—Miss Willard’s father 
would not let her read novels; but upon her eighteenth 
birthday she brought out from hiding a copy of Ivanhoe 
and before the fire of the sitting room began reading. 
“Frances, have I not told you emphatically that I did 
not want you reading such books ?” said her father. “Yes, 
father. But you have forgotten what day this is,” she 
replied with good nature and to her father’s credit be it 
said that as soon as he remembered that she had become 


A WOMAN BUILDER 241 


of age, he permitted her to use her own judgment, though 
he felt it was erroneous. 

Northwestern Female College——Since Mr. Willard 
was so orthodox, he felt that his daughter ought to attend 
a school whose teachings were distinctly Methodistic, and 
so sent “Frank” to the new Northwestern Female Col- 
lege, which was a private school in Evanston, located 
near Northwestern College and privately conducted at 
this time. This college was not welcomed by the uni- 
versity, for many quite good people then believed that 
girls did not need as much education as did boys, and 
that little or no art was required to become an efficient 
housekeeper or a wonderful mother. In the charter it 
was written that no liquor was to be sold within four 
miles of the college campus, and a vigorous attempt was 
made to keep the atmosphere clean. At this time 
“Frank” had little sympathy with religion, for she labored 
under the conception that it was not only unreasonable 
but unlovely, and so became the leader of a college group 
of students who sought to mimic bandits and made 
sorry attempts to become “dashing beaux.” 

Religion—Revivals were quite the thing when 
“Prank” attended school in Evanston, and religion was 
intensely emotional. In those days the test for piety was 
very likely to consist of feeling, and the evidence of salva- 
tion was that a person should get into a thorough ecstasy 
of emotion. Miss Willard could not sympathize with this 
and showed little interest in revivals or in the special 
student meetings which were being conducted. Professor 
James once took the liberty of asking a public congrega- 
tion to pray for her. Because she was reverently classi- 
fying herself as an inquirer many people reckoned her 
an infidel and cruelly told her their opinions. Once she 
was invited, when in a public meeting, to go to the altar. 
With cheeks aflame she went; but finding no light in this, 
she returned to her room and wrote a letter to the speaker, 
who was one of the teachers, and said, “When I go to 


242 BUILDERS JOP MIELE SCH RE 


the altar again I will go unasked.” But the time came 
when she did find God, and although there was no revival 
in progress at the church she accepted an invitation from 
the minister to join the church, and, to the surprise of all — 
in the building, arose and went to the front, quietly con- 
secrating her life to God. 

Then came the Civil War. In Evanston there was little 
that the inhabitants could do for the soldiers. Trains 
rolled through the town filled with soldiers for the South- 
ern battlefields, and Miss Willard was deeply moved. 
“Somewhere,” wrote she, “in Wisconsin and on the 
broad, bright plains of Minnesota, mothers, sisters, 
daughters, and wives will be weeping and praying for the 
soldiers. God pity them and give them peace.” Her 
brother enlisted but was never called. 

The teacher.—Little indeed was any young woman 
permitted to do in early days of American life save teach, 
but so enthusiastic for knowledge was Miss Willard, and 
so independent in her ideas, that she resolved no longer 
to take money from her father, but to earn her own living, 
and so accepted a position as school teacher in the village 
of Harlan, Illinois. She was homesick and miserable and 
declared: “The schoolhouse leaks, is small and dirty and 
meanly constructed. The children are more than half 
German, the rest Irish and uncultivated Americans.” 

She had the spirit of a true educator. “Made this day 
a resolve that concerning books, pictures, scenery, man- 
ners, etc., [ will always express my own honest and can- 
did opinion, and never say I like this or that, or think 
it . . . ‘heavenly’ or ‘bewitching’ merely because it is 
fashionable to think so.” 

Trip to Europe.—Soon after resigning this position 
Miss Willard met Miss Kate Jackson, whose people were 
very wealthy, and who invited Miss Willard to go to 
Europe as her companion. For two and one half years 
these two young women were in Europe and saw about all 
there was to be seen—at least so it seemed. 


A WOMAN BUILDER 243 


The College Dean.—The privately conducted school 
to which Miss Willard had gone in her student days had 
so far justified itself that it was taken over as a public 
institution for women students with the idea that even- 
tually it should become an integral part of Northwestern 
University. But greatest difficulty was discovered in 
securing the proper leadership for it. “One day when 
Frances was busy nailing down the stair carpet, Mrs. 
Kidder, whose husband was then leading professor in the 
Theological Seminary, came from her home across the 
street, and taking a seat on the stairs, said, ‘ “Frank,” I 
am amazed at you. Let some one else tack down carpets, 
and do you take charge of the new college.’ ‘Very well,’ 
answered ‘Frank,’ ‘I shall be glad to do so. I was only 
waiting to be asked.’ ” 

Soon after this incident Miss Willard became the first 
dean of the college. In 1871 the great Chicago fire re- 
duced many of the supporters of the college to poverty, 
and the people were obliged to spend money to rebuild 
their homes and were unable to give to the school as 
formerly; but Miss Willard went right on with high 
courage. 

Greatest difficulties were also encountered with the col- 
lege itself, since the experiment in coeducation was not 
very far advanced in the United States. The new dean, 
however, put the girls upon their honor and they re- 
sponded with genuine heartiness. She gave them liberty: 
“The young ladies shall do as they please, so long as 
they please to do right.” In this spirit the work went 
forward. At last the Rev. Charles H. Fowler became 
president of the university, and thought that the college 
should become a subordinate part of the larger university. 
There arose a difference of opinion between him and Miss 
Willard, and although she had no money, and risked her 
future security and faced poverty for herself and her 
mother, she resigned her position. 

Later in life, she came to think that the principles for 


244 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


which he stood were right, and that her own had been 
erroneously conceived, and with great large-mindedness, 
she publicly admitted her fault and published her change 
of opinion. People who can do this have courage of 
the finer sort. 

The crusade.—December 22, 1872, Dr. Dio Lewis, of 
Boston, spoke in Hillsboro, Ohio, upon the subject of 
“Our Girls.’ A great snowstorm prevented his depar- 
ture and he stayed over another night and was persuaded 
to lecture upon temperance. In this lecture he urged the 
women of the little town to go to the saloonkeepers in 
person and beg of them not to sell liquor any longer. 
The very earnestness of the speaker made success seem 
possible and a thing so easy to accomplish that when he 
called for volunteers, timid ladies, white-haired women, 
and prominent citizens arose to join him. Boldly they 
marched into the worst places of the town and took the 
saloon-keepers by such surprise that these men were 
readily persuaded to do as they were asked and poured all 
their stocks into the gutter. 

So amazing was this work that all over the country the 
women took up arms against the saloon, and women who 
had never known of the iniquity of their home town dis- 
covered it now as they enlisted in this crusade. They 
prayed in front of a saloon, and then entered and across 
the bar urged the keeper of the place to give up his terrible 
business. Illinois and Ohio seemed to be going dry, and 
even Pennsylvania and New York weré threatened by this 
revival. Sometimes the women were treated politely; at 
other times they were shut out and often mobbed—but 
still they persisted. 

Miss Willard was so thrilled at this great uprising of 
women that when she had a chance to serve their cause in 
Chicago she did it without salary. 

The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.—In 
this position she had no car fare, no money for food, and 
was always facing poverty. Many and many a time she 


A WOMAN BUILDER 245 


went hungry and believed that these sacrifices were ac- 
cording to the will of God. Finally she fell ill from very 
weakness and her mother gave her some sound advice: 
“God isn’t going to start loaves of bread flying down 
chimneys, nor set the fire going upon my stove without 
fuel. I shall soon see the bottom of my flour barrel and 
coal bin. You are out at the elbows, down at the heel, 
and down sick too. Now, write to those temperance 
ladies a plain statement of facts and tell them you have 
made the discovery that God works by means, and they 
may help you if they like.’ This counsel was followed 
and Miss Willard accepted a salary. 

President of the W. C. T. U.—In 1879 so great was 
her ability that Miss Willard was elected president of the 
organization with which she worked. Her skill in getting 
work done was amazing. Said one of her friends, a 
delightful Quaker person, “If thee wants anything done, 
‘Frank,’ just put on two other women with me on this 
committee; only let one of them be a permanent invalid 
and the other always out of town.” This was the spirit 
that characterized the work, and the thing worth noting 
is—that it got done. The president used to say, “If Noah 
had appointed a committee, the ark would still be on the 
stocks.” 

Woman Suffrage.—lIf prohibition was ever to become 
a fact in the United States, Miss Willard saw that it 
would be because of the vote of the women. Although 
any person venturing to advocate giving women the vote 
was considered a radical and a freak, the president of the 
W.C. T. U. while in prayer one day came to this conclu- 
sion, and thereafter gave her energy to the cause of 
suffrage. 

Though she was listened to with scorn, still she per- 
sisted. At Ocean Grove she carried her audience with 
her, and in the national convention of the W. C. T. U. 
in 1875 she timidly brought forth her resolution, advo- 
cating giving woman the vote, so that the home might re- 


246 BUILDERS OF THE:[ CHURCH 


ceive greater protection, and, to her surprise, the conven- 
tion carried her resolution. In 1876 the convention, meet- 
ing in New Jersey, further indorsed her program for 
woman suffrage. Miss Willard never liked Paul’s atti- 
tude toward women, and after she had heard John Stuart 
Mill’s wonderful speech before the House of Commons 
upon this question she never faltered. 

The third party—Thus another field for Miss Wil- 
lard was that of politics. She tried to get first the 
Republican and then the Democratic party to indorse 
the prohibition movement, and since neither of them 
would pay any attention to her, she gave her energies to 
a party which would, and thereafter voted the Prohibi- 
tion ticket. 

Her achievements.—This woman of humble origin 
had lived to espouse three great causes; she had made 
her name great in the world of prohibition; she had been 
instrumental in advocating a third party and had made 
it possible; and she had been a mighty support in the 
crusade for woman suffrage. She never lived to see her 
goals achieved, and died only with the vision of the day 
that was to be. Some called her a rogue, others thought 
her silly, and still others judged her in an even more 
merciless manner; but she stuck to her principles, and 
to-day the United States of America has acknowledged 
her leadership and acclaimed her zeal by making those 
issues for which she stood a subject for constitutional 
amendment. | 

Women vote and are enabled to protect their homes 
and cleanse their communities, because Frances E. Wil- 
lard supported generously Susan B. Anthony. America 
is now ridding herself of the curse of alcohol, a curse 
which had heretofore taken many of the brightest of her 
sons, and still works its havoc upon Europe and other na- 
tions of the world, because of Frances E. Willard. Prohibi- 
tion never would have come had not the people been pre- 
pared for it through a process of education which lasted 


A WOMAN BUILDER 247 


nearly one century—and most conspicuous among the 
educators was Miss Willard. 

The days of youth.—This woman, broken in the 
battle for the right, must have had by that inner light 
knowledge of the fact that she would not much longer 
stay on earth. In the latter part of 1897 she returned to 
Janesville, the town of her girlhood. She even went 
to the little church where as a girl she sat through the 
long, long services and counted the spiders upon the 
ceiling! And in this church she gave an address which 
moved all who heard her. It was her last speech in 
public. 

In 1898 she contracted the influenza and had not the 
strength to rally. During her last hours she said to her 
attendants, “How good it is to be with God!” and on 
February 17, 1898, passed away, and the flags were set 
at half mast in hundreds of towns and cities through- 
out the length of the land. When the citizens of Illinois, 
years later, had opportunity to select two of their number 
to be represented by statues at Washington, they counted 
Frances E. Willard among their greatest—and hers is the 
only woman statue. 

An estimate—This woman’s life was not perfect; 
but was of transparent goodness. Her phrase, “The 
Lord is real, his whole nature is love,” explains the motive 
power of her life. As a friend said, “She knew the 
divine in humanity, and in the darkest, dingiest human 
life she recognized the aureole that no one else saw.” 
And Lady Somerset truly stated, “But I think the great- 
est evidence of how deeply she was rooted in Chris- 
tianity was her power of forgiveness.” 

Up in the great Northwest, a lot of men gathered about 
the campfire and the conversation drifted to the topic 
of “women.” Many unlovely things were said and much 
of the thought was more than rough. Finally one of 
the guides was led to take part in the conversation, and 
his opinion about women was solicited. He gave it as 


248 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


follows: “I met a woman once, East, who made me think 
differently. She made me believe in women, and her 
name was Frances E. Willard.” A brilliant testimony of 
a rough hunter and hardy guide to the power of a pure- 
minded, high-souled woman. Frances E. Willard was a 
woman through and through, but that did not hinder her 
building in the Kingdom. 


Stupy Topics 


1. Name other outstanding women, besides Frances E. 
Willard, who have been builders of the church, and tell what 
they did to advance the Christian enterprise. 

2. What has been the traditional attitude of the professions— 
medicine, law, religion, teaching—toward women seeking a place 
in them? In what ways has this attitude been justified or not 
justified ? 

3. What vocations within the church are now open to women? 
Interview some woman who is serving the church in some voca- 
tional capacity, and discover, if you can, her ideas as to the 
place of women in the work of the church. 

4. How many women have been placed in the American Hall 
of Fame and what type of service have they rendered? Is it 
true that they won their places through service to their fellow 
men? Justify your answer. 

5. Give a brief sketch of the life of Frances E. Willard, show- 
ing how the influences of her early life and training were re- 
flected in her later activities. 

6. Describe the origin and early activities of the Woman’s 
Christian Temperance Union. What is the present size and 
scope of that organization and what is it now doing for the 
good of humanity? 

7. What did the life and work of Frances E. Willard accom- 
plish for the building of the church? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Strachey, Ray—Frances Willard, Her Life and Work. 
Willard, Frances E—Glimpses of Fifty Years. 


CHAPTER XXV 
DWIGHT L. MOODY AND EVANGELISM 


THE spirit of Jesus expresses itself very differently 
in the same generation, and it is very significant to note 
that while Horace Bushnell was working at his books, 
telling his friends in New England about religious edu- 
cation, another man was abroad in the world telling in 
his vital way the ability of God to transform the lives of 
men who were denied the chance of orderly growth in 
their youth and unbenefited by religious training. This 
man was Dwight L. Moody, and the revival movement 
which began when Francis Asbury and other Methodists 
first came to America previous to the year 1800, con- 
tinued throughout this entire century, finding its highest 
expression in the efforts of this humble New Englander. 

Fighting with poverty.—Up away from the ocean 
and where the Connecticut River narrows down to a 
trickling stream, and the rolling hills sharpen and throw 
their forms into the deep blue sky, nestles a little town 
called Northfield—near the northern border of Massa- 
chusetts. Here Dwight Lyman Moody was born, Febru- 
ary 5, 1837, into a large family of robust children. While 
he was yet a baby his father died and cruel creditors, tak- 
ing advantage of his mother’s poverty, robbed her of 
furniture, taking even the kindling wood from the shed, 
leaving a widow with seven little children in dire straits. 

It was only because Uncle Cyrus Holton came on that 
winter day and split wood and brought fuel that cold 
and starvation were prevented from working havoc with 
this entire home. Mrs. Moody refused to disband her 
family, and with the help of Mr. Everett, the kind old 
minister of the Unitarian Church, she was able to keep 
the wolf from the door. No complaining was per- 


249 


250 BUILDERS OF tHE CHURGE 


mitted in this humble home, and the children were taught 
that they need not go to the neighbors for their enter- 
tainment and pleasure. A poor, but delightfully happy 
Christian home was this. 

One by one the various members of the family were 
obliged to leave home to make their earnings count in 
meeting the expenses. Dwight worked for a while 
cutting logs upon the sides of the mountains; finally, be- 
coming discouraged with his outlook, and though only 
seventeen years of age and with but five dollars in his 
pocket, he set out for Boston to try his fortunes. He 
became a zealous salesman, and showed his uncles that 
he could sell shoes better than he could make them. 

Chicago and business.—Hearing that the West was 
opening up and that fortunes were being made, Moody 
left Boston for Chicago. Before going Mr. Edward 
Kimball led him to a happy comradeship with Jesus 
Christ, from which comradeship he never departed dur- 
ing the remainder of his life. Later in life it became his — 
unique opportunity to interest himself in the son of this 
same Mr. Kimball, and, in turn, to lead him into a fellow- 
ship with Jesus Christ. 

Arriving in Chicago, he secured work in the shoe busi- 
ness and wrote to his mother that he faithfully attended 
prayer meeting and church. So successful was he as a 
salesman in the shoe store where he worked that his 
employer promoted him to represent the firm as a com- 
mercial traveler, in which position he earned a salary of 
over five thousand dollars a year—a tremendous salary 
in those days, especially for one so young, 

Sunday-school work.—Moody decided to use his 
leisure moments in some form of Sunday-school work. 
Reasoning thus, he went into the toughest part of the 
city and opened a Sunday school among the street gamins. 
Hard was the task, for these children were dirty and ill- 
kept, lacking any proper understanding of either God or 
Christianity. Because of the visits of Moody to their 


EVANGELISM 251 


homes, and the plentiful supply of candy which he carried 
in his pocket, but mostly because of the sincere and 
genuine love that he held for children, his Sunday school 
grew until more than fifteen hundred used to assemble 
in an old hall weekly. Moody himself prepared this 
hall for the session, and every Sunday morning he could 
be seen busily rolling the beer kegs out of the hall and 
mopping up the beer stains. Moody felt his efforts 
crowned with success when Abraham Lincoln visited it 
on his way from Illinois to serve for his first term in 
the White House at Washington. _ 

Working for the Y. M. C. A.—In the interest of 
the Young Men’s Christian Association, his success was 
unusually marked. Though his religious views were con- 
servative, his addresses and his methods of dealing with 
men were uncommonly sane and sensible.) It was at 
this time that he met another American business man, 
Mr. Ira D. Sankey, who happened to be singing at one 
of the meetings at which Moody spoke. So impressed 
was Mr. Moody with the voice which Sankey possessed 
that he immediately asked if this singer would not come 
to Chicago and enter the religious work then being 
carried on at that city. Sankey was well established in 
business and felt inclined to remain at home and finish 
making his fortune. For months he held out, but finally 
agreed to enter the work with Mr. Moody, and for more 
than a quarter of a century the phrase “Moody and 
Sankey” was upon the lips of every intelligent American 
citizen, for Ira D. Sankey had a most winsome manner 
and attractive personality, while his voice, though not 
“trained” as are voices to-day, compelled attention to 
the thought of the song he was singing. 

The writer heard him sing when an old man, and 
after Moody, his comrade of many years, had diedsamle 
was a simple hymn entitled, “The Ninety and Nine,” 
which tells of the ninety-nine sheep that are safe in the 
fold and of one that is lost far up in the mountains and 


252 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


for which the shepherd risks his life, finds his sheep, 
and returns to the fold rejoicing. One could see it all, 
and when the gray-haired singer was through, the vast 
throng was moved as by a tidal wave by this simple 
hymn. One does not wonder that crowds came to hear 
Mr. Sankey sing his message into the hearts of men. 

The Chicago fire—While Moody went about the 
country working for the Y. M. C. A. and for the Sunday 
schools, he had time to see that his mission in ‘Chicago 
did not suffer. Then came the great Chicago fire, which 
destroyed most of the city. Mr. Moody’s own home was 
burned to ashes, with all that was in it except an oil 
painting, which his wife carried away. 

This faithful worker, however, was not discouraged, 
and the Y. M. C. A. building was rebuilt better than ever 
before, while in the place of the little mission rose the 
splendid Moody Church, which still may be seen in the 
great city. 

The call to England—A Y. M. C. A. secretary at — 
York, England, invited Mr. Moody and his party of 
evangelists to visit England, agreeing to pay their ex- 
penses; Moody borrowed money for the trip, and on 
arriving in Liverpool found that his friend was dead. 
Without resources and with a party in a strange land he 
waited to think what he should do. By accident he dis- 
covered a letter which he had thoughtlessly put in his 
pocket unread before he left America, and opened it. 
From it he learned that other people were asking whether 
it would be possible for him to come and speak for them. 
Immediately Moody went to some small towns in Eng- 
land and began his work. At first the English hesitated 
to give their allegiance; but when they saw how genuine 
Moody and his followers were, they accorded them the 
heartiest support. So profound was the impression made 


that again in 1872 Mr. Moody was invited to visit Britain. — 


While upon this second journey, it was wrongly 
said that Moody and Sankey were sent to Britain 


EVANGELISM 253 


by Mr. P. T. Barnum, who was then well known 
chiefly for his ability to run museums and show 
houses. Opposition arose from many quarters, but 
Moody continued patiently forward. When he held meet- 
ings in the city of Edinburgh the places were packed, and 
so great a personage as the Rev. Alexander Whyte sup- 
ported his efforts. To most of the services admission was 
by ticket only, and the students of the university thronged 
these gatherings. In this same city Donald McAllan, 
chairman of the Infidel Club, came to the meeting to 
argue Mr. Moody into silence. He was rebuked by being 
asked to point out one man who had sought friendship 
with Jesus Christ and had been refused. Being unable to 
answer this indictment, he withdrew his opposition. 

From Edinburgh Moody went to Glasgow, where he 
preached in the Botanical Gardens. At Aberdeen there 
was a meeting upon the public golf links, and a crowd of 
nearly twenty thousand people listened, while the well- 
known scientist, Henry Drummond, and John Watson, 
the author of the beautiful book Beside the Bonme Brier 
Bush, both gave him their ardent support. 

The story was the same wherever he went. In Dublin 
the services were held in the Executive Hall, and special 
excursion trains were run in from the country to ac- 
commodate the people who desired to attend. In Bir- 
mingham eleven thousand people filled the great public 
hall, and the famous R. W. Dale, who did not believe 
much in revivals, asserted that he nevertheless believed in 
Moody. In London Professor Moffatt, who translated 
the New Testament so marvelously for us, gave Moody 
the strength of his friendship, and so enormous were the 
crowds who wanted to hear about the Christian Glad 
Tidings that two large corrugated iron buildings were 
made which were portable. And while meetings were 
held for two weeks in one of these buildings, the other 
was being moved to another part of the city, where it 
was to be used for the next series of services. 


254 BUILDERSHOR EACH URGr 


Evangelism in America.—So unusual was the success 
of Moody in Britain, and so popular had his preaching 
become, that when he returned home he found America 
very anxious to hear his message too. In Philadelphia his 
meetings were held in the old Pennsylvania Railroad 
Depot, which held thousands. In New York P. T. 
Barnum’s Hippodrome was not large enough to hold the 
crowds which came to hear his words. When the World’s 
Fair was held in Chicago he conducted a series of serv- 
ices in that city which commanded the attention of the 
people as much as the great exposition itself. Sunday 
morning he requested the managers of the Forepaugh 
Brothers Circus to rent him their great tent for evan- 
gelistic services. The management said it was too large 
and never could be filled. How wrong they were may be 


judged from the fact that thousands were turned away — 


from the very first meeting and more attended that serv- 


ice of worship than the afternoon and evening perform- — 
ances of the circus. Thereafter this management asked — 


Mr. Moody if he could not furnish them regularly with a 


preacher who would use their tent every Sunday after- — 


noon regardless of where they were in America. 
The place of music in religion.—One of the reasons 


explaining the success of Mr. Moody’s efforts was his | 


use of music. He taught the public of Britain and 
America to sing. Since he could find no hymnal suitable 
for his own use, he collected a number of hymns and 
sold them bound together for six-pence a copy; later on 
the same book was sold without music for two cents a 
copy. So great a demand for this book existed that 
Moody found himself embarrassed with a royalty of 
thirty-five thousand dollars on a single edition. He would 
not take it himself, but gave it to the church in Chicago, 
which had been only half built since the great fire, and 
was waiting for more money in order to complete its 
construction. 

As the sum from hymn books became larger and larger 


EVANGELISM 255 


it was donated to the schools for boys and girls— 
Northfield and Mount Hermon—of which we shall hear 
more later. So it was through the instrumentality of 
Moody and Sankey that Protestant Christianity again 
realized the worth and power of music in the realm of 
worship. 

We must not assume because humanity listened to this 
man so willingly that he never had enemies, for quite the 
Opposite was the case. When he first conducted services 
in Cambridge, England, the students laughed, called out 
aloud during prayer, and mocked him to his face. But 
when Cambridge saw the sincerity of this man it re- 
sponded to his message. 

At the University of Oxford a drunken party came into 
the meeting the first night for the purpose of breaking it 
up. Mr. Moody denounced these cowards and challenged 
the English habit of fair play—and won his point. The 
next evening others came, and as he began to read from 
the Bible they called aloud: “Hear, hear.” With wrath 
aroused, Moody flung out his rebuke, saying, “You had 
better play with forked lightning or meddle with some 
deadly disease than trifle with the word of God.” The 
audacity of the man captured these students, and when a 
few nights later he challenged, “Who is going to live for 
Jesus Christ and openly become his disciple? Who has 
courage to rise in the presence of his classmates and make 
such a stand?” a young Trinity man rose with cheeks 
aflame, and after that hundreds of other students seri- 
ously promised to become Christians. 

The press was also unfriendly and called him in irony 
“Brother Moody,” and then “Crazy Moody”; but later 
was forced to change its estimate. 

An educational program.—Though Mr. Moody be- 
lieved that men ought to repent of their sins, and that 
_ revivals were needed within the church, the day came 
when he seemed also to realize that revivals were not 
enough. 


256 BUILDERS OP RIB RSGHURCH 


One summer afternoon he saw a poor mother with two 
daughters sitting out upon their little front porch making 
straw hats to eke out a scanty existence, and learned that, 
though this mother was in straitened circumstances, she 
proposed that her two girls should have a thorough educa- 
tion, which had been denied their mother. All this 
brought back Moody’s home life and the bitter experi- 
ences with painful vividness, and he then and there re- 
solved to establish a school where such worthy girls as 
these should gain a good education. This was the begin- 
ning of Northfield—now one of the finest preparatory 
schools in America. 

Later on, he came to see that boys from poor homes 
ought also to have opportunity to obtain a solid Chris- 
tian education, and he had the courage to go out and 
raise the money and establish Mount Hermon, which to- 
day ranks high on the roster of preparatory schools. The 
number of students who have gone well equipped from 
these two schools into the colleges of America have been 
a silent but powerful testimony to the wisdom of this 
man in giving so much of his energy to these educational 
projects. 

In addition to this, Moody felt that preachers in the 
church and lay workers should be better trained, and he 
became the moving factor in establishing the Moody 
Bible Institute in the city of Chicago. The motive 
which prompted this foundation was most laudable; but, 
unfortunately, those who have continued the work where 
Mr. Moody laid it down have not been dominated by the 
educational impulse that was his, and it is doubtful if the 
work as now carried on would command his approval. 

He lived out the belief that a Christian without a 
trained mind could not be. To a certain extent it may 
be said that he joined hands with Horace Bushnell, and 
both have sought to teach the church a lesson it may do 
well to remember. 

The close of a busy life.—His wife outlived him. He 


EVANGELISM 257 


remained active to the last. Smitten with a weak heart 
while conducting a mammoth series of meetings, he left 
for home. All the way along the route friends did what 
they could to cheer him. The engineer who took the 
train from Detroit to Saint Thomas, when he learned that 
the sick man was aboard said: “Tell him I'll do my 
best to hurry, for I am now a Christian because of what 
Mr. Moody did for me’—and the train sped on. Ar- 
riving home at Northfield, the sick man took at once to 
his bed. During the last moments he said as he came 
out of a stupor, “I have been within the gates.” His 
mind wandered, and finally he actually entered the gates 
and they closed behind him. They buried him among the 
hills, on the summit of the rolling slope called Round 
Top. Once Dwight L. Moody said: “A holy life will 
produce the deepest impression. Lighthouses blow no 
horns, they only shine.” And his own life demonstrated 
the truth of his own epigram. 


Stupy Topics 


1. Compare the method of doing the work of the church as 
advocated by Horace Bushnell with the method used by Dwight 
L. Moody. Which method yields the more far-reaching and 
lasting results? Justify your answer. 

2. What place does the revivalistic method have in the Chris- 
tian enterprise? In what way must it be supplemented? 

3. Account for the success of Dwight L. Moody as a Chris- 
tian builder. What qualities did he possess which you would 
like to develop? 

4. Discuss the place and importance of music in the work of 
the church. In what way was it an aid in Moody’s work? 

5. What were Moody’s ideas concerning the need for educa- 
tion not only on the part of children but adults as well? How 
did these ideas become realized? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 
Moody, William R.—The Life of Dwight L. Moody. 


CHAPTER XXVI 
ROBERT E. LEE—A CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN 


Early life of Lee—Of distinguished lineage came 
Robert E. Lee, for his father was none other than “Light 
Horse Harry Lee,’ of Revolutionary War fame. From 
this high-spirited father did Lee get that dash and de- 
termination. Leé’s mother, though an invalid, was a 
woman of high character and culture. His father hav- 
ing died when Robert was but eleven years old, the task 
of molding this boy’s character fell upon the shoulders of 
his sick mother. Lee became her strong, affectionate and 
devoted son. He gave up much time from recreation to 
take her out riding, and carried her in his arms to the 
carriage and with the gentleness of a woman. 

West Point.—To Mrs. Lee that bitter day arrived 
when her son must leave home, for he had decided to 
enter military life and had prepared himself for West 
Point. At eighteen he entered this training school of the 
army, and throughout his entire course of study kept him- 
self temperate and under control even though the dissipa- 
tion of West Point was such that Colonel Thayer, the 
commanding officer, was obliged to write to President 
Adams telling of the evil generally prevalent. , 

Returning to Arlington, Virginia, in 1831, he married 
Miss Custis, of old Virginia aristocracy, and thus became 
interested in the vast estates, farms, and slaves which 
belonged to his wife. Since he was a member of the 
army, when the Mexican War came on he was active, 
and upon several occasions gained the admiration of Gen- 
eral Scott because of his bravery in hazardous situations. 

Life before the war.—Thus before the Civil War 
broke out Lee was engaged in carrying on the routine 
work which might fall to any officer of ability in the 

258 








A CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN 259 


United States army and was known as an efficient sol- 
dier. While doing some government work he was once 
called upon to bury a little child who had died, and the 
depth of the man’s heart is revealed in the fact that he 
tried to give all comfort possible to the child’s parents. 
He wrote delightful letters home to his children and 
talked about the neighbor’s cherry trees being in bloom, 
about his love for “fried chicken and mush,” and about 
the need of his sons and daughters keeping within their 
income. 

He was interested in the political struggles of his day, 
and showed remarkable balance of mind in writing that 
he hoped President Buchanan “will be able to extinguish 
fanaticism of North and South, and restore harmony be- 
tween the different sections’—a thing which this weak 
and vacillating President simply could not accomplish. 

His first direct connection with the struggle which re- 
sulted in the bloodiest war ever waged upon the North 
American continent came when, as an officer in the 
United States army, he was ordered to proceed to 
Harper’s Ferry and there to arrest an old man named 
John Brown, who was stirring up trouble over the slave 
question. Lee obeyed orders promptly and with good 
spirit. To a friend he wrote regarding John Brown, “I 
am glad we did not have to kill him, for I believe he is 
an honest, conscientious old man.” 

Lee’s attitude toward Negroes.—Mrs. Lee had in- 
herited slaves from her father, and long before the war 
Lee took careful oversight in the process of setting them 
at liberty. Those who desired to remain at the old manse 
were received and paid wages. At the time he was setting 
these people at liberty he wrote, “In this enlightened age 
there are few, I believe, but will acknowledge that slavery 
as an institution is a moral and political evil in any coun- 
iryiy 

After the war his consideration for the Negroes re- 
mained the kindest. “I have always thought so, and 


260 BUILDERS OF (THE CHURGEH 


have always been in favor of emancipation—gradual 
emancipation.’ Lee was no friend of slavery. He had 
seen too much of it. 

Lee asked to aid the Union.—For thirty years this 
officer had served the United States government, and as 
the war clouds gathered he was fifty years of age—hay- 
ing reached a time in life when most men long for rest 
and peace of mind. The Hon. Francis P. Blair with the 
knowledge of Lincoln visited Lee and offered him a com- 
mand in the Union army, for all men knew of his mili- 
tary genius. “After listening to his remarks,” said Lee, 
“T declined the offer he made me to take command of 
the army that was to be brought into the field, stating as 
candidly and courteously as I could that, though opposed 
to secession and deprecating war, I could take no part 
in an invasion of the Southern States.” 

Shortly afterward General Scott, who had achieved 
great prestige in the country because of his victories in 
the Mexican War, asked Lee for an interview, and stated 
that Lee ought to declare himself upon one side or the 
other, now that the government was facing war. During 
this conversation General Scott told him of the honor 
and preferment which would become his at the head of 
the Union army, and urged Lee to accept Lincoln’s over- 
tures. But Lee’s response was brief as he announced his 
resignation: “I am compelled to; I cannot consult my own 
feelings in the matter.” 

The great decision—Before Lee made his decision 
he fought a great inner battle. “The night his letter of 
resignation was to be written he asked to be left alone for 
a time, and while he paced the chamber above, and was 
heard to fall frequently upon his knees and engage in 
earnest prayer for divine guidance, she (Mrs. Lee) 
waited below. At last he came down, calm, collected, 
almost cheerful, and said: ‘Well, Mary, the question is 
settled. Here is my letter of resignation and a letter I 
have written to General Scott.’ ” 


A CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN 261 


The question was settled, and though the voice of duty 
took Lee away from advancement, honor, friendships, 
though it left him poverty-stricken, maligned, and en- 
thusiastically hated, he did his duty as he saw it. He 
felt that Virginia was his country, and that his first 
loyalty came to his State, and upon this principle he 
entered the war opposed to the United States government. 

And when the war was over he humbly said: “I did 
only what my duty demanded. I could have taken no 
other course without dishonor. And if it were all to be 
done over again, I should act precisely in the same man- 
ner.’ Men may differ with the judgment of such a man, 
but who can refrain from honoring so sublime a spirit? 
“There is a true glory and a true honor, the glory of 
duty done, the honor of integrity of principle.” 

Personal prowess.—Lee never asked any subordi- 
nate to do anything which he dared not attempt him- 
self. In critical battles he threw caution to the winds 
and was found where shells fell most thickly. At the 
battle of Antietam, while he was sitting in the midst of 
a group of officers, a shell fell, burying his own glove 
but leaving him unharmed. He stopped at a most danger- 
ous point in the line of battle just below Rich- 
mond and picked up a fledgling sparrow to restore it 
to its nest. . 

At Chancellorsville a Union prisoner approached him 
and complained that his hat was stolen by a Confederate 
soldier. Lee was in the midst of giving orders, but 
stopped immediately and made the soldier return the 
prisoner’s hat. All the while, whether in peace or under 
fire, he indulged only in the most exquisite politeness. 

Courage of the army.—His spirit of daring invaded 
the soldiers under Lee, and they fought against the great- 
est odds. Often the army was without medicine such 
as quinine and chloroform; it was without shoes and 
nearly barefooted; never was there enough food and 
blankets; beef was exhausted. So severe were the priva- 


262 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


tions and the ever-present famine that officers frequently 
reported that their men broke down and became insane. 

April 23, 1861, Lee was put in command of the Vir- 
ginia State troops and began his campaign in the war. 
Resting under a shade-tree after a terrible battle, an army 
surgeon came up, and not recognizing the commander. 
announced, “Old man, I have chosen that tree for my field 
hospital, and I want you to get out of the way.’’ Lee was 
not at all pricked, but calmly replied, ‘“There is plenty of 
room for both of us, Doctor, until your wounded are 
brought up.” 

He inspired within the hearts of his men a rare 
chivalry from his own example. Once while traveling in 
a car he saw a wounded private having difficulty in getting 
on his top coat, and immediately helped; when, after a 
battle, there was not enough food for both prisoners 
and soldiers, Lee commanded that the prisoners should be 
attended to first; and when the hail of shot wrought 
havoc in the ranks of his men he burst out in terrible 
agony, “The loss of our gallant men and officers through- 
out the army causes me to weep tears of blood, and to 
wish that I could never hear the sound of a gun again.” 
When Colonel Venable fell asleep in the mud and rain 
from sheer exhaustion after Gettysburg, he awoke to 
find that Lee had spread his personal oil skin over him to 
give protection. 

This love did not weaken his discipline. He insisted 
upon camp cleanliness and simply would not visit a dirty 
camp. He sternly opposed gambling in the ranks wher- 
ever he found it. When his army determined to move 
into the North he gave strictest orders against pillage 
and any kind of plunder. Any soldier caught in the act 
of stealing was ordered shot, the deserter also was ordered 
executed, and Lee did his best to see his orders obeyed. 
Though the terrible conditions which existed in the 
prisons of Libby and Andersonville still haunt the im- 
agination of the North, it must be candidly confessed that 


A CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN 263 


Lee, upon his own testimony, stated in after years that he 
was entirely ignorant of the horrors perpetrated in these 
places. A man so outstandingly brave and clean was in- 
capable of soiling his hands with such foul work. Lee's 
orders always were, ““The wounded foe is to be treated 
exactly like a friend.” 

His family life—This militant general of such genius 
in a great modern war was also a very loving father and 
thoughtful husband. He loved his home and all that it 
meant. Often he romped with his children; he never 
liked to be separated from them, and was generous in 
his dealings with them to a fault. 

A gentle hospitality ever met those who called at the 
Lee home. There was an Old-World chivalry and that 
subtle honor for woman which characterized this man in 
all his doings about the house and about business. Lee 
never smoked. He hated strong drink and was a most 
ardent advocate of prohibition. He knew what liquor 
had done for too many sons of the Virginian well-to-do 
class and how many homes it had broken and how many 
hearts it had embittered. 

Daily he attended to the business of the army, but 
never forgot those at home. One morning one of his 
generals engaged with him in the routine business of the 
day and then left his tent. Unannounced, this officer re- 
turned to the tent to find Lee in tears. Before him was 
the open letter received from home telling him of the 
death of his daughter. The war took all his time, but his 
heart was with his family. It was a cruel stroke, but it 
fell upon a man who could master circumstances. 

Two of Lee’s sons were in the war. One was on duty 
as an artilleryman, and became acquainted with all the 
grime and sweat which the arduous toil of that part of 
the army entails. 

His other son was an officer in the army and was 
wounded. Shortly after the battle of Gettysburg this son 
was taken prisoner, and in all the pressure of this great 


264 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


defeat Lee found time to write to his wife as follows: 
“I have heard with great grief that Fitzhugh has been 
captured by the enemy. Had not expected he would have 
been taken from his bed and carried off, but we must 
bear this additional affliction with fortitude and resigna- 
tion and not repine at the will of God . . . we must 
bear our labors and hardships manfully. Our noble men 
are cheerful and confident. I constantly remember you 
in my thoughts and prayers.” The wife of this captured 
son was dying at home, and several of Lee’s officers sug- 
gested that an attempt be made to exchange his son with 
prisoners so that he might return home to his dying wife. 
Lee was profoundly moved, but steadfastly refused to 
ask for any favor even for his own son that he would not 
ask for the humblest soldiers in the army. 
Gettysburg.—The outcome of Lee’s attempt to invade 
the North was the battle of Gettysburg, for General 
Meade met Lee with overwhelming numbers at this place 
and a battle was fought. Lee’s plans could not be worked. 
For one reason or another his generals arrived upon the 
scene too late. With a valor careless of life these Ameri- 
cans were meeting one another, and they fought with a 
fearlessness never before witnessed in this world. Gen- 
eral Pickett charged, and when his ranks were decimated 
again and again, he was driven back. The tide was 
turned, and with consummate skill Lee withdrew his 
battered and shattered army. So terrible was the dis- 
aster, which was no fault of his, that for once his emo- 
tions overcame him and he cried out in very travail of 
soul: “Too bad! Too bad! Oh, too bad!” But he 
fought the war through to the end. 
Appomattox.—Gettysburg was the high-water mark of 
the struggle, and so keen a mind as Lee’s must have 
clearly seen that the end was sure to be defeat. His army 
fought until it was but a shadow of its former self, and 
when at last it seemed as if flesh and blood could go no 
further, General Grant opened up negotiations to prevent 


A CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN 205 


further shedding of blood. It was a magnanimous thing 
to do, for the Union men were sure of victory; they were 
better fed and clothed and outnumbered Lee’s army. 

In a little brick house, Lee and Grant met—Lee dressed 
neatly, as befitted a son of the cavaliers, and Grant in the 
slouchy and somber garb befitting a western plainsman. 
To meet with Grant and arrange the terms of surrender 
called for more courage from Lee than the most danger- 
ous battle. He represented a brave army, and General 
Longstreet said to Lee on the way to meet Grant: “Gen- 
eral, unless he offers us honorable terms, come back and 
let us fight it out.” 

Grant, however, was no less noble, and could spare a 
vanquished foe. With great dignity and courtesy Lee 
met Grant and the terms were arranged. After the short 
meeting Lee left the little house at Appomattox and urged 
his soldiers to go home, to lay down their arms, and never 
again to take up arms against the United States govern- 
ment. 

In Lee, Grant appreciated a gallant foe. He would 
allow no salutes and no public marks of joy over Lee’s 
surrender. 

In the finest sense of the phrase Lee was a “man of 
God.” He was a member of the Episcopal Church, and 
early in life was confirmed in its membership as a Chris- 
tian. 

Religion during the war.—When the conflict raged 
about him Lee was calm within, since he made sure daily 
to keep friendship with God. Army camps are not famed 
for piety, but Lee took interest in religion and visited 
many prayer meetings which took place in the camp of 
his soldiers. When General Wise damned a civilian out 
of camp, Lee reasoned with him against profanity and 
ended his conversation by offering to do the cursing for 
Wise’s brigade! 

Certain Jews requested the privilege to attend some 
service at the synagogue at Richmond, but this request 


266 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


was denied by their captain. When Lee heard of it he 
reversed the decision and stated that officers should 
always respect the religious convictions of their men. 

Being a loyal Episcopalian, a certain lady reproached 
him for not refraining from certain dishes during Lent, 
but Lee cheerfully replied that he proposed to abstain 
from certain sins—which he thought was a better pro- 
cedure. At all times he tried to practice the democracy 
of Jesus, and though a man of war, sought ever to make 
peace among his acquaintances. In the army his courtesy 
was the same to the peasant as to the prince. 

The death of Stonewall Jackson.—When that ardent 
Christian, Stonewall Jackson, was mortally wounded, Lee 
was profoundly moved and persisted in asserting to com- 
rades, “Jackson cannot, he will not die.’ .Later in the 
day Jackson sent a most affectionate greeting to his be- 
loved commander, and Lee returned the love of this 
princely man by saying, “Tell him that I wrestled in 
prayer for him last night as I never prayed, I believe, — 
for myself.” 

The church.—Lee was loyal to the church. In the 
gloomy hours of the war a friend in his tent told him 
that the chaplains of the army were praying constantly 
for him. The old hero’s face flushed, tears started from 
his eyes, and with choked utterances, arising from deep 
emotion, he replied: “Please thank them for that, sir. I 
warmly appreciate it. And I can only say that I am a 
poor sinner, trusting in Christ for salvation, and need all 
the prayers they can offer for me.” 

With all his piety Lee was not a “saint,” for he had 
a violent temper which caused him trouble. Rarely did 
it get beyond him, yet when he saw brutality—such as 
one of his men flogging an artillery horse—it was more 
than he could stand and the storm broke. He tried to 
live uprightly before his children, and wrote to a friend 
telling how he noticed his boy walking in his steps 
through the snow. “When I saw this, I said to myself, 


A CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN 267 


‘It is time for me to walk very straight when this fellow 
is already following in my tracks.’ ” 

Loyalty to the United States.—A certain lady felt so 
bitter toward the government that she was training her 
sons to hate all that it stood for. When Lee heard of it 
he wrote to her: “Madam, don’t bring up your sons to 
detest the United States government. Recall that it is 
your country now. Abandon all these local animosities 
and make your sons Americans.” 

Most remarkable in Lee’s life was his ability to love 
people. After the war he made this astounding state- 
ment: “I have fought against the people of the North be- 
cause I believed they were seeking to wrest from the 
South dearest rights. But I have never cherished bitter 
or vindictive feelings, and have never seen the day when 
I did not pray for them.” How like Him who said, 
“Love your enemies,” this sounds! 

College president.—After the war many offers were 
made to Lee, whose fortunes were quite swept away by 
the defeat. A European estate was proffered, but he de- 
clined it. A fifty thousand dollar salary with a nominal 
business relation was presented, but he valued his good 
name as worth more than money and would not accept 
this offer. At last, for the meager stipend of one thou- 
sand five hundred dollars yearly, Lee became president of 
Washington College and spent five useful years trying to 
send out into the world youths who would be sharp of 
mind and consecrated to Christianity at heart. 

The crown.—But the war had undermined his strength 
and a rheumatic heart began to trouble him. His last 
act was done in the vestry of his own church. He rose in 
prayer to ask a blessing upon the board which was there 
meeting and then sank in his chair and was gone. 

Lee failed in his highest hope. He was defeated. But 
he was great. Success and greatness are not identical. 
His lover, Thomas Nelson Page, writes of his going: “Yea, 
ride away, thou defeated general! Ride through the 


268 BUIEDERS’ OF THE CHURGH 


broken fragments of thy shattered army, ride through thy 
war-wasted land, amid thy desolate and stricken people. 
But know thou art riding fame’s highest way. 


‘This day shall see 
Thy head wear sunlight and thy feet touch stars.’ ” 


And so he went; but in the heart of every Southerner 
is a shrine erected to him—not built of marble or brass, 
but of love. So this builder of the church builded the 
best he could. In some of his efforts he failed. But as 
with all who build the church he will forever be great. 
And it is the genius of Jesus Christ that he recognizes 
greatness as being of a higher order than success. 


Stupy Topics 


1. What is the difference between greatness and success? 
Which would you rather achieve? 

2. Was Robert E. Lee justified in refusing a command in the 
Union army in preference to the command of the Southern 
army ? . 

3. What motives led Lee to accept charge of the Confederate 
army? To what extent were these motives in the interests of 
the common good? 

4. Discuss Robert E. Lee’s qualities as a Christian. What help 
and inspiration could one derive from a careful study of Lee’s 
life? . 

SUGGESTED READINGS 


Page, Thomas Nelson—Robert E. Lee. 
Bradford, Gamaliel—Lee, the American. 
Gilman, Bradley—Roberi E. Lee. 


COA TERA XX VIL 


BOOKER T. WASHINGTON—A NEGRO 
BRO Betis 


“Gop is no respecter of persons’—so preached Peter, 
and no more glowing proof of this truth is to be found 
in the history of the Christian Church than in a remark- 
able personality known among men as Booker T. Wash- 
ington. Born somewhere around 1857—he himself never 
knew the exact date—in West Virginia, in slavery, and 
without any name, he learned that his father was a white 
man, but exactly who he never knew. His mother was 
an ignorant Negress who loved her boy very dearly. He 
slept upon the dirt floor of the cabin and wore a shirt of 
unfinished hemp which was so rough as to cause agony 
to his tender skin. Washington ever recalled with a glow 
of gladness the loving care which his mother bestowed 
upon him during his lifetime. 

Freedom and education.—At the conclusion of the 
Civil War the slaves of the plantation upon which Wash- 
ington and his mother toiled were called to the house of 
the master, and told they were free. Washington’s 
mother left the plantation to live in Malden, where her 
children could work in the salt factory. Here it was that 
Washington began his education, and he related: “The 
first day I entered school, it seems to me, was the hap- 
piest day I have ever known.’ After some unknown 
fashion his mates in the factory called him “Booker,” 
and so when the school teacher asked him his name, he 
told her “Booker,” and since many of the Negroes were 
taking names from illustrious statesmen, he assured her 
that his last name was “Washington.” 

Thus informally named, the label stuck to him through- 


269 


270 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


out the remainder of his life. He arose for school at 
four o’clock each morning, after which he worked until 
nine o'clock in the evening. Later he was sent to work 
in the coal mine, and though each day he entered in 
great fear of the dark, he took a book with him and read 
by the rays of the little light placed upon the front of his 
miner’s cap. 

Shortly after beginning work in the coal mine he se- 
cured a position with a New England lady who was liv- 
ing in Malden, West Virginia—Mrs. Ruffner—who per- 
mitted him to tend her vegetable garden in the day and 
attend night school every evening. She was remarkably 
exact, thrifty, and orderly. She gave Booker just the 
discipline he needed and taught him the value of cleanli- 
ness, for all of which he expressed appreciation publicly, 
in his later years. While he was living with Mrs. Ruffner 
he joined the Baptist Church and continued a faithful 
member of it during his life. 

At that time General S. C. Armstrong was conducting 
a school of very high merit called Hampton Institute and 
Booker resolved to ask for admission. Arriving as far 
as Richmond, he ran out of funds and was obliged to 
sleep under a board sidewalk that night. He worked for 
the captain of a steamboat, and by sleeping each night 
under the sidewalk, was able to get enough funds to pro- 
ceed to the Institute. Securing the position as assistant 
janitor, he lived on cornbread every day save Sunday— 
when he received some white-flour bread—and in 1875 
graduated. 

The call to Tuskegee.—In 1881 some citizens of good 
repute in the little town of Tuskegee, Alabama, had se- 
cured an annual appropriation from the State Legisla- 
ture of two thousand dollars for educating Negroes who 
had been set free from slavery, and having heard of a 
splendid address which Mr. Washington had previously 
made at his Alma Mater, he was invited to become prin- 
cipal of this school. He accepted this invitation and went 


A NEGRO PROPHET 271 


to the school, which met partly in an old broken-down 
wooden church and in a little shanty, where the students 
held an umbrella over the teacher whenever it rained, and 
the winds blew through the cracks in the walls during the 
winter season. 

The work of the first few years was very elementary 
and Mr. Washington not only was obliged to tell the 
students how to prepare food, but also how to eat it 
properly. In the very first year he summoned his faith 
and borrowed five hundred dollars for the purchase of a 
farm. Washington was proud of his fellowship with 
Negroes. “I had rather be what I am, a member of the 
Negro race,” said he, “than to be able to claim member- 
ship with the most favored of any other race.” 

Begging in a great cause.—I{ money should be ob- 
tained for this work, Mr. Washington knew that he must 
go North to get it, for the South was terribly impover- 
ished by the war. With foreboding he started out, and 
made his first speech in the Congregational Church at 
Chicopee, Massachusetts. Thence he went to the little 
town of Northampton, where he could find no colored 
family which would entertain him. Some people insulted 
him—for he was a Negro—when he asked them for aid. 
But later in life these very people, overcome by shame, 
gave him, yearly, handsome sums for his work. 

The development of a great Negro school.—Booker 
Washington never stressed the grievances of Negroes. 
He urged them to “put brains into the common things of 
life.’ General S. C. Armstrong campaigned with him 
for buildings. Some money was raised, the students dug 
the cellars, made the bricks, sawed the lumber, and then 
built these buildings. Mr. Washington never asked for 
money to accomplish what these loyal students could do 
for themselves. Year after year the buildings went up 
and the number of students increased. All who came 
were obliged to work, and nearly all wanted to work be- 
cause of their need for money. They were taught how 





272 BUILDERS OF THE, CHURGE 


to raise cotton, sweet potatoes, peaches, and the like. The 
Negro who “produced good works” was the one who 
always gained recognition—this was the spirit of Tuske- 
gee. All students were obliged to pay a part of their 
expenses, to learn to work, and to see clearly the dignity 
of labor. | 

Tuskegee.—What came out of the tumbled-down 
church and the shanty, if told in full, would constitute 
one of the great romances of American life. It is only 
possible to say that this simple beginning grew into a 
school of over one thousand students. The school was 
composed of an agricultural department; a large farm of 
eight hundred acres; a mechanical department with its 
harness, tailor, paint, and shoe shops; a domestic science 
department with its laundry, dressmaking, and millinery 
rooms; a nurses’ training school; a night school for those 
who worked all day and could not otherwise obtain an 
education; a choir of seventy-five, a choral society of 
one hundred and fifty members, a Bible school; and be- 
sides all of this, there was a regular academic course 
which prepared students of high standing for college. 

The first great event in the history of Tuskegee was 
when President McKinley made a visit to the school. 
There had been race riots after his election and bitterness 
existed between Negroes and the whites. As a demon- 
stration of national good will toward what Mr. Wash- 
ington was trying to accomplish the President decided to 
make a visit. It was a gala day, and arches from the rail- 
road station to the school were erected and covered with 
flowers. All the members of the Cabinet were present, 
while the governor of Alabama, who also had been in-_ 
vited, was present with his staff. About six thousand 
people spent an entire day reviewing the work being 
undertaken at this school. An inspection completed, the 
guests adjourned to the beautiful chapel built by the 
Negroes themselves, and members of the Cabinet, and 
finally the President gave addresses to the multitude. 


A NEGRO PROPHET 273 


The climax came when President McKinley said, “To 
speak of Tuskegee without paying special tribute to 
Booker T. Washington’s genius and perseverance would 
be impossible.” 

So remarkable had been the growth of this school that 


Mr. Washington feared what might become of it after his 


death. One half his time was spent going about the coun- 
try raising large sums for its maintenance. At last 
he decided a large endowment must be raised. Decem- 


ber 4, 1899, a great rally was arranged at Carnegie Hall 


in New York for the purpose of beginning the campaign 
for money. Ex-President Cleveland was to preside, but 
on the day of the event, being taken suddenly ill, he sent 
a most enthusiastic note together with a check for twenty- 
five thousand dollars which he had secured from a rich 
lady. This interest of the ex-President aroused all pres- 
ent, and with Mr. Walter H. Page, then editor of the 
Atlantic Monthly, and later one of our ambassadors, mak- 
ing a most eloquent speech, and with General Carl Schurz 
presiding—he who had done so much for civil reform in 
the United States—the work began, and large sums were 
donated. Before Mr. Washington died he saw the endow- 
ment for his school increased to over $500,000. It was 
a magnificent feat. 

“As I look back now over our struggle,’ said Mr. 
Washington, “I am glad that we had it. I am glad that 
we endured all those discomforts and inconveniences. | 
am glad that our students had to dig out the place for 
their kitchen and dining room. I am glad that our board- 
ing place was in that dismal, ill-lighted, and damp base- 
ment. Had we started in a fine, attractive, convenient 
room, I fear we would have ‘lost our heads’ and become 
‘stuck up.’ It means a great deal, I think, to build on a 
foundation which one has made for himself.”? 


1From Booker T. Washington’s Own Story of His Life and 
Work, Doubleday, Page & Co., publishers. Used by permission. 


274 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


The defender of the Negro.—Mr. Washington, how- 
ever, did not confine all his energies to the work of his 
school, but gave himself fully to the needs of his race. 
They could not well meet with their new life immediately 
after their delivery from slavery. At times the ignorant 
Negro was very indiscreet and almost every one of them 
knew what some kind of persecution meant. When 
speaking to a large colored audience in the Fifteenth 
Street Presbyterian Church at Washington, he urged his 
race to give less time to office-seeking and more effort to 
business and industrial enterprise. Later on in life he 
wrote for The Outlook an article in which he condemned 
the colored ministry in the United States for being igno- 
rant. When he saw the truth he spared not his dearest 
friend in pursuit of it. 

But most of his efforts were given to defense and en- 
couragement. When Benjamin Tillman, of South Caro- 
lina, proposed certain legislation which would reduce the 
opportunities which Negroes might have for knowledge, 
Washington wrote him such a protest as was published 
all over the country. Later when an effort was made to 
disfranchise the Negro in Louisiana, he published an- 
other statement of such power as to be sent broadcast 
over the land, and even while upon his deathbed he sent 
out notices in which he urged our government to be more 
patient with the people of the black republic of Haiti and 
more lenient in its treatment of them. 

The curse of lynching—Mob rule is degrading and 
brutalizing and is the profoundest menace to the vitality 
of any nation. Citizens of the lower sort in the United 
States have the habit of taking the law into their own 
hands when they suspect a neighbor guilty of serious 
crime, and without trial they often kill him by burning, 
hanging, or some other equally definitely planned way of 
torture. Aside from being brutal, this “rule of the mob” 
defies the Constitution of the United States, which ex- 
plicitly states that no man shall be punished in any man- 





A NEGRO PROPHET 275 


ner at all without the due process of a trial. Though 
Negro mobs have gathered at times and killed white 
men, it is generally the white men who have gathered and 
killed or “lynched” some Negro. 

Often it is discovered that the Negro who is lynched is 
innocent of the crime of which the mob suspected him. 
Mr. Washington carefully went into this matter of lynch- 
ing, and for years Tuskegee has kept accurate statistics 
about these mob murders which give damning evidence 
against the white men who participate in them, and bring 
a blush of shame to the cheeks of one who believes in the 
law which Americans of all generations have died to pre- 
serve. Armed with this evidence, Mr. Washington went 
before the American public with a terrible moral indict- 
ment. 

Why Washington opposed lynching.—He cursed 
lynching because it made men brutal. He told how once 
he heard a little blue-eyed, flaxen-haired boy say, “I have 
seen a man hanged; now I wish I could see one burned.” 
And Washington rightly said that any father ought to 
feel that he would rather have seen his child buried than 
to think thus. He opposed lynching because it was an 
insult to the jury system of America: it belittled the 
sheriff, it mocked the lawmakers of the land, all of whom 
were white men. With tremendous earnestness he 
affirmed, “With the best of the white people and the best 
of the black people standing together in favor of law and 
order and justice, I believe that the safety and happiness 
of both races will be made secure.”2 And when he an- 
nounced, “Fiat of law cannot make an ignorant voter an 
intelligent voter, . . . cannot make one citizen respect 
another,” the American conscience was aroused. 

He showed that four fifths of the Negroes were lynched 
for some other alleged crime than rape. He showed that in 


2From Booker T. Washington’s Own Story of His Life and 
Work, Doubleday, Page & Co., publishers. Used by permission. 


276 BUILDERS OR THE GH wh GH 


six years nine hundred Negroes had been lynched—only a 
few less than perished in all the battles of the Spanish- 
American War. He announced that unless the govern- 
ment took drastic measures to see that the law was 
obeyed by all the people, this dread curse would 
spread all over the land like a mighty pestilence. America 
chose not to hear the voice of this prophet, and has 
neglected to insist upon the sovereignty of the law, and 
the results have been exactly what Washington predicted. 
He spake, but we did not listen; and now he is with us 
no more, we would to God that his magnetic voice might 
again be raised in our midst to rouse our hearts, prod 
our consciences, and quicken our actions to stamp lynch- 
ing and mob rule out of our midst, before, as with some 
dread malady, it be too late. 

Robert Gould Shaw.—So eloquent was Washington 
that demands for him to speak came from all parts of the 
United States. In the spring of 1897 a monument was 
erected in Boston to the memory of Robert Gould Shaw. 
who had commanded a regiment of Negro soldiers dur- 
ing the Civil War, for he was commander of the Massa- 
chusetts Fifty-ninth. 

This regiment had suffered fearfully at Fort Wagner, 
but the color sergeant, William H Carey, would not give 
up the flag, and after the battle spoke the immortal words, 
“The old flag never touched the ground.” During a 
mighty oration in the crowded assembly at Boston at the 
dedication of this monument, Washington, who had 
never met Sergeant Carey and did not know him by sight, 
alluded to these now famed words. It so happened that 
the sergeant was sitting in the front seat of the hall with 
the same old flag on his lap. As Mr. Washington brought 
out these famous words, the sergeant rose, and hung the 
flag where the audience might see it. The effect was 
tremendous. The audience rose, cried, clapped, shouted, 
and stamped upon the floor for sheer enthusiasm. It was 
a sight the like of which Boston had not seen in almost a 





A NEGRO PROPHET 277 


century. And the governor of the State forgot his dignity 
so much as to rush to the front of the platform and call 
out, ‘“Three cheers for Booker Washington.” 

_ At the close of the Spanish-American War, in the 
Chicago Auditorium, which seats three thousand seven 
hundred and fifty persons, Mr. Washington spoke. It 
was a time of great jubilation, and President McKinley 
was there with his Cabinet. The voice of the great Negro 
rose above the murmur of the crowd, and a profound 
hush brooded over all. In the hour of triumph, this man 
dared say, “We have succeeded in every conflict except 
to conquer ourselves in the blotting out of racial prej- 
udices.’ He made an eloquent plea for justice toward 
the Negro, and then, turning toward the box in which the 
President of the United States sat, thanked him publicly 
for all he had done in recognition of the Negro, and ex- 
pressed his gratitude in such glowing periods that the 
chief executive rose from his seat and openly bowed his 
acknowledgment, while the audience approved with tre- 
mendous applause. 

Honors achieved.—Men of all degrees in life honored 
Washington. He lunched at one time or another with 
almost every governor in the Northern States. Presi- 
dent Roosevelt had the courage of his convictions and, 
despite the protest of ignorant people who dislike 
Negroes, invited Mr. Washington to dine with him at the 
White House. 

As early as 1896 Harvard University honored both Mr. 
Washington and itself by bestowing upon him the honor- 
ary degree of Master of Arts. It was the first honorary 
degree any New England University had ever bestowed 
upon a Negro, and when Mr. Washington was thus 
honored he found himself among the goodly company of 
Bishop John H. Vincent, General Nelson A. Miles, and 
other such prominent men. So hard did he work for his 
school, his colored farmers, and the safety of the Negro 
that his strong body could not stand the strain. 


278 BUIEDERS OF THE GHURCH 


His last public speech was in the enormous Woolsey 
Hall at Yale, where he moved a mighty throng of people 
to shouts and tears alternately. It was an address of 
masterful eloquence and he left the building exhausted. 
He met with some prominent men in New York the fol- 
lowing day, and they, seeing his weakness, urged him to 
be examined by a physician. So bad was his condition 
that they took him at once to the splendid Saint Luke’s 
Hospital, which the Episcopal Church maintains atop the 
beautiful Morningside Heights in New York. He grew 
worse and his wife was summoned. 

“T was born in the South, I have lived and labored in 
the South, and I expect to die and be buried in the 
South.” With this indomitable will he started home, and 
this love for the South in his heart gave him a strength 
which made him ride against death on the long journey 
home. He won. They carried him to his home from the 
train and the next morning he passed into the presence of 
the God of good-will and love. 

The triumph.—Neither Negroes nor whites despaired 
at his funeral. Seth Low, that distinguished citizen and 
ex-mayor of New York, sent a telegram saying that the 
board of trustees were still behind Tuskegee. Friends 
met at the chapel and sang his favorite Negro melody, 


“Tell all my father’s children, 
Don’t you grieve for me”; 


and then they sang that ever-living classic of the black 
race, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” after which the 
friends of this princely man broke into that beautiful re- 
frain, “Still, Still With Thee.” And they laid his body 
away in the midst of the school grounds which he loved 
so well. 

Theodore Roosevelt, who knew him well, said, “I prof- 
ited much by my association with Booker T. Washing- 
ton. I owed him much along many different lines. I 


PON EGROTEROPHED 279 


valued greatly his friendship; and when he died I 
mourned his loss as a patriot and an American.” 
After the passing of Sir Christopher Wren, the archi- 
tect of so many of those beautiful cathedrals, some 
friends challenged, “If you would find his monument, 
look about you.” So it is with Booker T. Washington: 
“If you would find his monument, look about you.” 


Stupy Topics 


1. What is the Christian attitude toward the Negroes? Have 
the Negroes received fair treatment at the hands of the white 
people since their emancipation from slavery? Give your rea- 
sons for the answer. 

2. What progress in their economic, industrial, social, educa- 
tional, and religious status has been made by the Negroes in the 
last fifty years? In what ways has their progress been hindered? 
In what ways has their progress been aided by the church? 

3. Discuss Booker T. Washington’s struggle for education. 
Why is an education worth fighting for? 

4. Describe the efforts made by Booker T. Washington in 
behalf of his race. How has the race benefited by them? 

s. To what extent will it be possible for the black race to 
achieve equality with the white race? What is Christianity’s 
responsibility in this struggle for achievement? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Scott, Emmett J., and Stowe, Lyman_ Beecher—Booker T. 
Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 

Washington, Booker T.—Up From Slavery. 

Holsey, Albon L.—Booker T. Washington's Own Story of His 
Life and Work. 


CHAPTER XXVIII 
A’ BUILDER ORCA WNOBLER GUY 


Tue builders of the church must work in all manner 
of places. Some build new races; others construct a 
nobler manhood or womanhood; but that high task was 
left to Robert William Dale to demonstrate for a skepti- 
cal world that the builder of the church can and ought 
to build a city more beautiful and fit to live in. 

On December 1, 1829, Dale was born in London and 
reared in a poor family. His talented mother from the 
very beginning desired her son to become a minister. 

Early life in the church.—At a young age he became 
interested in religion, having troubled moments wonder- 
ing whether or not he really was a Christian. “At last— 
how I cannot tell—all came clear; I ceased thinking of 
myself and of my faith, and thought only of Christ; then 
I wondered that I should have been perplexed for even 
a single moment.’ This was the way in which Dale de- 
scribed his conversion at the age of fourteen and one half 
years. Shortly afterward he joined the Congregational 
Church, became active in the Sunday school, and, having 
spent much time in reading, he began preaching at the 
remarkably youthful age of sixteen. He could not have 
been much of a preacher, for his talent did not impress 
his pastor, Dr. Campbell, who refused to cooperate with 
those persons interested in sending Dale to school more 
adequately to prepare him for the ministry. 

Finally Mrs. Cash, a woman of comfortable circum- 
stances, but with no excess wealth, guaranteed the nec- 
essary hundred dollars a year, and this young man was 
forthwith privileged to enter Spring Hill College. For 
the rest of his life Dale regarded this woman as the one 
person who made possible his education. 

280 





BUILDER OF NOBLER CITY 281 


College.—While at college Dale was overworked, and 
-as a result of this was frequently overcome by fits of 
depression. Often could he be found in the historic 
Town Hall of Birmingham listening to such men as 
Fergus O’Connor, who was one of the leaders in the 
Chartist Movement of 1848, while such heroes as John 
Bright, Kossuth, and Emerson spoke to his edification. 
He attended church during his student days but oddly 
enough, rather disliked to attend the Carr’s Lane Con- 
gregational Church, of which he later became the famous 
minister. 

During Dale’s college course the minister of Carr’s 
Lane suddenly became ill and could not preach on Sun- 
day, with the result that young Dale was rather hastily in- 
vited to give a sermon to the two thousand four hundred 
or more people who were present. Frightened almost to 
death, he did his best, and his message was evidently im- 
pressive enough to make the people want him for their 
assistant pastor as soon as he graduated from college. 

John Angell James, who for many years had been the 
greatly beloved minister of Carr’s Lane, was growing old, 
and in 1852 Dale was engaged to preach for him once 
each month and thus relieve him of a part of the burden. 
There was nothing unusually attractive in the church at 
this time, for many people said, “The church will go to 
pieces as soon as Mr. James goes to heaven.” Evidently, 
they believed this statement, not knowing the vitality of 
the living Church of God. Dale himself was not over- 
attracted with this new opening and hesitated to accept 
this position with the church; but finally, concluding that 
“the man who disregards duty to follow ideals of his 
own, however noble, . . . is imperiling much more 
than success,’ he threw himself into the work. 

“My idea has always been that Carr’s Lane, by its 
position in the town and by its size, must ultimately be- 
come the center of Christian effort directed to the lower 
part of the middle class and working classes, and that its 


282 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


present ‘respectability’ must in a measure disappear if 
it is to retain any life and power.” 

There is something very modern in this situation which 
confronted Dale so many years ago. Old wealthy and 
residential members were moving out into the suburbs 
as the city expanded, and it was necessary for the church 
to give its ministry to the poorer and sometimes less edu- 
cated class of people who moved into its neighborhood— 
always a serious problem for any church, but always a 
sure way of keeping the vitality of that church at high 
pitch and wonderfully spreading the Kingdom. 

The minister at Carr’s Lane.—In 1854 the people 
solemnly gathered for the first time in fifty years to vote 
upon their new pastor, and Dale was unanimously elected 
and invited to become assistant pastor. A few weeks 
later he accepted this honor, and while his letter was 
being read at a public meeting he was sitting by the 
bedside of the best friend he had in the world—his 
mother. She died that night. 

Immediately his repute spread. Mr. James died shortly 
after Dale came to this church and he was elected as the 
regular pastor. Soon the people of far-off Australia 
heard of him and invited him to become pastor of their 
church; then the London Missionary Society—that very 
old and august body of people—asked him to preach be- 
fore their annual meeting, and at the end of a two hour 
sermon he swept them off their feet. His repute was 
spreading. This hard work, however, broke his health, 
and when only thirty years of age he experienced his first 
nervous collapse. 

Citizenship was a very profound and sacred thing to 
Dale, and early in his career he announced his convic- 
tion regarding it: “I feel a grave and solemn conviction, 
which deepens year by year, that in a country like this, 
where public business of the state is the private duty 
of every citizen, those who decline to use their political 
power are guilty of treachery both to God and to man.” 


BUILDER OF NOBLER CITY 283 


Under this “grave conviction” he gave himself without 
stint to the business of the state in order that his fellow 
beings might have greater blessings in life. 

Birmingham politics—Although there were strong 
traditions of democracy in and about Birmingham, still 
the city affairs had reached a pretty low ebb. The town 
council was wont to meet in the public tavern, “The 
Woodman,” where much of the city business was trans- 
acted in a most undignified manner. Streets were badly 
paved and were worse lighted. There were more than 
two thousand closed courts to breed disease, vice, and 
crime. ‘Wells contaminated by filth that was left to 
soak into the soil supplied two thirds of the population.” 
Water was supplied the other third of the city for three 
days out of each week. Under such conditions it was 
to be expected that death stalked in the midst of the 
city and took a heavy toll. Dale prevailed upon the 
Town Council to appropriate a stupendous sum of money 
for beautifying and cleansing the city, and the good 
work began. 

Throughout his life Dale never ceased working for a 
better city. To have it become more like the Christian 
ideal—the city of God—was his ambition. He 
persuaded the city fathers to purchase large tracts of 
lands for public parks, to operate municipally owned 
gas works and water works which supplied the city 
every day in the week. Hospitals, libraries, schools— 
one after the other they came to bless this city of work- 
ing people. 

One day Canon O’Sullivan, of the Roman Catholic 
Church, said to Dale, while they were having a friendly 
chat in a committee room, “Dale, when do you mean to 
quit politics and look after your soul?” 

Replied Dale: “I have given my soul to Christ to look 
after. He can do it better than I can. My duty is to 
do his will, and leave the rest with him.” 

All about Dale were critical ministers who were tell- 


284 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


ing their people that cattle plague, drought, and bad 
harvests were forms of punishment from God, and they 
thought Dale irreverent because he maintained that if 
It were proper to talk about plagues in the pulpit, it 
was also quite proper to point out the political and social 
wrongdoing in the nation which made such troubles 
come. 

Municipal duty.—In his justly famed Yale Lectures 
Dale frankly stated his motives in all of this kind of 
work: “For men*to claim their right to neglect their 
duties to the state on the ground of their piety, while 
they insist upon the state protecting their homes, pro- 
tecting their property, protecting from disturbances even 
their religious meetings in which this exquisitely delicate 
and valetudinarian spirituality is developed, is gross un- 
righteousness.” Because of this devotion to the welfare 
of his city Dale arose to great social power within it. 

Good city officials he defended from slander. Bad 
ones he openly denounced. So great became his influ- 
ence that the City Council no longer met at “The Wood- 
man,” and men of the better type entered office. Joseph 
Chamberlain, who later became prime minister of Eng- 
land, received the support of Dale and was accused of 
being the representative of Dale in Parliament. In reply 
this great statesman said: “But you will at least remem- 
ber this: that if Mr. Dale has any influence over the 
fifty thousand electors of Birmingham, he owes it to his 
devotion to their highest interests, he owes it to his elo- 
quent and outspoken advocacy of all that is good and 
great,” 

The school board.—l or ten years—from 1870 to 1880 
—he served upon the School Board of the city. Upon 
coming into this office Dale immediately looked into the 
condition of Birmingham and discovered that of the 
children between the ages of three and twelve years, only 
fifty per cent were in school, ten per cent at work, and 
the remaining forty per cent were playing, idling, or in- 





BUILDER OF NOBLER CITY 285 


dulging in unvarnished ignorance. There were six thou- 
sand people in the city who could not afford to pay for 
the education of their children. Upon reaching these 
facts Dale threw himself into the fight and demanded 
vehemently a national system of education whereby the 
cities and the national government should provide with- 
out cost a free education to every English subject. He 
had no love for the private denominational schools. 

In 1870 an Education Bill was introduced into Parlia- 
ment, and roused Dale to say: “The child has the right 
to receive elementary education; the state can enforce 
that right, and ought to enforce it; if the parents are 
able to pay for that education, they ought to be made 
to pay; if they are too poor, the right of the child must 
be acknowledged and the state must provide education 
from public funds.” 

Success of Dale’s advocacy of education.—All Eng- 
land was an armed camp upon this question. Many 

ardent supporters lionized Dale for his stand, while many 
others bitterly hated and opposed all he attempted. 
Many enthusiastic friends urged him to accept an 
— election to the House of Commons in order that he might 
more efficiently espouse his cause and give every little 
child in England an education. Dale, however, thought 
differently. “The House of Commons he felt to be in- 
compatible with the pastorate, and no inducement would 
have led him to abandon his work as a Christian min- 
ister. . . . He would have regarded the government 
bench itself as a descent from the pulpit of Carr’s Lane.” 
Here behold a man who thought it greater to be a builder 
of the church and in this manner became a builder of 
one of the greatest nations in all history. 

At the end of ten years’ work on the Birmingham 
_ School Board, Dale felt that his strength would not permit 
_ him to continue in office longer, hence he resigned. But 
before he retired, his fellow citizens presented him 
_ with a large and costly bookcase filled with the choicest 


286 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


kind of books, which they knew he would desire to own 
and read. 

Manchester College.—Spring Hill College had con- 
tinued to grow since Dale’s graduation, but inasmuch 
as there was no big university in Birmingham, many 
leaders in the church thought that it ought to be removed 
to a point near either Cambridge or Oxford. Dale was 
among those who felt the change essential. Yet if the 
removal was to be an accomplished fact, the sum of 
one hundred and.twenty-five thousand dollars had to be 
raised. Dale went about the country and helped collect 
this sum, and in 1899 had the joy of seeing the new col- 
lege opened which was named Manchester College, in 
honor of the people who had first given money to estab- 
lish the old Spring Hill College. From the beginning 
to the very present this college has been one of the con- 
spicuous centers of learning in Britain, and its influ- 
ence has gone throughout the world. 

Opposition to established religion.—Dale was con- 
vinced that any church which could not survive through 
the affectionate support of its adherents ought to perish. 
Hence in 1870 he opposed vigorously Mr. Gladstone, 
then prime minister of England, who sought to keep the 
Established Church in power, and went all over the land 
calling upon voters to take away these unjust privileges 
from a great strong national church. Bitter indeed was 
the opposition which this crusade of his stirred up, and 
most subtle were the efforts of his enemies to discredit 
him by publicly contrasting him with the “saintly” John 
Angell James, who formerly had been in Carr’s Lane, 
and had not meddled with politics! His enemies stated 
that “wealthy, fat, and saucy, he lords it over his heritage 
at Carr’s Lane, and preaches to some four thousand 
persons against the government and laws of his coun- 
try.” But Dale went straight ahead! 

Disraeli, who made a garish impression upon the shal- 
low-minded of England, pulled no wool over the eyes of 


BUILDER OF NOBLER CITY 287 


this prophet. And when this bizarre patron of royalty 
would not grant the vote to all men without discrimina- 
tion but, rather, declared that the franchise was a popular 
privilege and not a democratic right, Dale immediately 
assailed him by declaring, “Deny the people the franchise, 
and the right of revolution still remains.” 

World politics—In 1887 a bill was brought into 
Parliament proposing to let the Irish rule themselves. 
Dale supported this bill and gave much time to it, but 
when it was defeated, so disappointed was he that in a 
moment of weakness he retired from politics. 

His interest in humane conditions the world over con- 
tinued to call forth large energies, and he gladly gave 
himself to the making of a better world as well as a 
nobler parish. When the American Civil War was on, 
he withheld a decision until he saw that the North was 
sincere, and then threw his lot with it—for the Proclama- 
tion of Emancipation had won his loyalty. Being a true 
liberal the Russian tyranny roused his ire, and splendid 
utterances crowned his philippics against the dastardly 
Romanoffs. When Garibaldi and his peasants in their 
réd shirts marched for the deliverance of Italy from 
the hand of the oppressor, when the Crimean War worked 
to protect the Turkish regime in Europe, when Polish 
heroes gave their lives upon Polish battlefields in the vain 
fight against the might of bureaucratic Russia—when all 
these things occurred, Dale was sure to be heard from, 
pleading with his countrymen to weigh the issues 
in the spirit of Jesus and to support only that which 
was just. 

This interest in world politics lasted until the very 
end. John Bright, who had championed most of the great 
causes of his day, became wearied toward the end of his 
life and wrote to Dale, “I am weary of public speaking, 
and my mind is almost ‘blank.’” And with significant 
words Dale replied, “But to hear that Elijah is weary 
touches the heart of one who saw him on Carmel.” He 


288 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


had time to comfort another fighter in the cause of human 
democracy. 

Sorrows.—He went through great depths but never 
faltered. His brother, a professor at Oxford, died and 
Dale was heartbroken. Very shortly afterward when he 
himself was ill, and too weak to see his daughter Claire, 
she, who was fighting tuberculosis, suddenly died. Her 
father was even more prostrated. His little girl, Alice, 
later passed away, and his grief may best be related by 
one who was near him at that time. “At the funeral, 
after days of relentless self-restraint, he broke down 
utterly and irretrievably, and my childish memory still 
recalls the intolerable agony of a strong man, and the 
pitiless blue of the summer sky above the open grave.” 

Ideal of the church.—So tremendous was his ideal of 
the church, however, that he could not let any troubles 
stop his toils for it. Believing deeply in “the com- 
munion of saints,” he plainly stated, “Wherever I find 
a man has learned the secret which Paul, Augustine, 
and Luther knew, I am always conscious of a sense of 
brotherhood with him.’’ Wherever people met truly in 
the spirit of the Master, at that place was a church. Ubi 
Christus, ibi ecclesiat—this was his favorite expression. 
To those who sought to make the church something hard 
to comprehend he said, “It is enough, if when they meet, 
they really meet in Christ’s name. . . . But no man 
can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost.” In 
eloquent words he summed his ideal of the church: “The 
church—this is the Congregational ideal—is a society, 
larger or smaller, consisting of those who have received 
the Divine life, and who, with whatever inconsistency 
and whatever failures, are endeavoring to live in the 
power of it.” 

Christ alive—One day while Dale was preparing his 
sermon it suddenly became unusually plain to him that 


“Wherever Christ is, there is the church.” 


BUILDER OF NOBLER CITY. 289 


Christ is alive. Alive! The truth startled him and then 
aroused him. He preached a series of sermons upon the 
living Christ which extended into the months and 
crowded his church with people eager to hear his mes- 
sage. So transforming had been this discovery to his 
personal life that he then and there resolved that his 
people never should be permitted to forget this one glori- 
ous truth. Every Sunday morning, in bright May or 
gloomy November, he had his people sing an Easter hymn, 
and if you will attend Carr’s Lane Church some Sun- 
day this month, you will find that the people sing one 
Easter Hymn at the morning service. “Christ Is Risen: 
Hallelujah’ —this hymn expresses the secret of Dale’s 
power as a builder. 

Rising popularity.—These remarkable efforts in be- 
half of his church brought him the love and fame so 
much merited. He was made president of the Interna- 
tional Council of Congregational Churches in 1891 which 
was attended by delegates from all over the world. His 
countrymen made him president of the Congregational 
Union. He was editor of an influential religious paper. 
Upon returning from a trip to Australia, whither he 
went in search of health, he made an address in the 
famed old Town Hall in Birmingham, and as he mounted 
the platform the banner was flung out which read, “We 
love you, and we tell you so.” The multitude generally 
know who is their friend. 

Making a trip to America, he gave the famous Lyman 
Beecher Lectures at Yale and made an address upon 
“British Politics.” Though making a bad beginning, for 
two hours he spoke, and at the conclusion of his address 
the people of reserved old New Haven applauded for 
ten minutes. He bowed, and there was more applause, 
then more speaking, then more applause before the peo- 
ple would leave to go home. 

Increasing weakness.—Dale’s health broke perma- 
nently when he was sixty-two years of age. In 1891 he 


290 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


withdrew from the Congregational Union and during 
the next two years lived pretty much to himself. “He 
was already bound for solitary seas.” In a little cottage 
up among those beautiful hills of Wales he sought rest 
and a return to strength. His heart played him many 
tricks and often doctors were summoned. 

His strength, however, so much returned that he felt 
he could again take up his work in Carr’s Lane. Weak 
and agitated this old hero returned to the pulpit, and as 
he entered the joy. of the congregation overflowed, and 
they rose and began that immortal ode of Christianity, 
the Te Deum. Dale tried to speak, but his voice broke. 
He faltered, and then with a supreme effort gathered his 
energies and ventured out into a beautiful acknowledg- 
ment of the care God had given him during his long 
sickness, and after this sermon with great humility ad- 
ministered the communion service to his friends in the 
church. 

February 10, 1895, he preached for the last time. To- 
ward the end of this week he grew suddenly ill, and be- 
fore many knew of his danger, slipped away. After the 
funeral, upon his study desk, his friends found an in- 
complete manuscript he was preparing for use 
in the church services which read: “After our mortal 
years are spent, there is a larger, fuller, richer life in—”’ 
The sentence was never finished, for God took this man 
into the hope which he had begun to describe to the peo- 
ple of his church whom he loved. When he died, citizens 
in Birmingham knew that because of his good building, 
the city was more beautiful, cleaner, and a more fit place 
for the Lord of all men to dwell in. 


Stupy Topics 


1. Why should Christians not only be interested in, but 
actively engaged in, public affairs and in the improvement of 
political and civic conditions? 

2. What public matters engaged the attention of Robert 
William Dale, and what did he do to improve them? 


BUICDDER OF ‘NOBLER CIry 291 


3. What should every church know about the conditions of 
its own community—education, sanitation, fire prevention, vice, 
recreation facilities and living conditions? What part should 
the church play in improving these conditions? 

4. To what extent should the church be the servant of its com- 
munity? How may the church serve its community? Answer 
by means of fitting illustrations. 

5. What responsibility does the church bear to world affairs 
and how must it discharge that responsibility? 

6. What are the duties and privileges of a world Christian? 
Was Robert William Dale a world Christian? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 
Dale, A. W. W.—Life of R. W. Dale. 


CETA PR ed 
THE POET ISA BUILDER OF THE CESS. 


RrcHARD WATSON GILDER was supremely a poet, and 
although he accomplished many brilliant feats in his 
extraordinarily useful life, yet most distinctively was he 
given to song, and hoped all would reckon his most useful 
contribution to the world to lie in the realm of the muse. 
Born on February 8, 1844, in Bordentown, New Jersey, 
his father a traveling Methodist minister, who took him 
to live in Brooklyn, then to the little town of Redding, 
Connecticut, and finally to New Haven, he seemed to 
have spent a brief boyhood among loving parents and 
admiring aunts—and then was off to the Civil War. 
Though uncommonly young, he was No. 1 of the squad 
having charge of his gun. Before Harrisburg he had a 
little experience of being under fire, and returned home 
to become paymaster upon a railroad where he handled 
much money without any guard whatsoever, and in later 
years remarked, “It is a mystery why I was not robbed.” 

Being lured by writing, he undertook to help manage 
the Newark Advertiser, and reported Lincoln’s assassina- 
tion, after which he retired to shed tears with the other 
correspondents. When in 1870 the first edition of Scrib- 
ner’s Magazine was issued under the able editorship of 
Dr. J. G. Holland, we discover that Gilder had made 
sufficient advancement in this type of work to be selected 
as the assistant editor. 

His chief success in these early years was his marriage 
to the beautiful and brilliant Helena de Kay, in June, 
1874. Though both these young people were enamoured 
of such spirits as Dante, Tennyson, and attended lec- 
tures and concerts, still upon their wedding day, so 

292 


THE POET A BUILDER 293 


slender were their finances, that they took no trip but 
went directly to 103 East 15th Street and entered a 
humble cottage which was to be their home for fifteen 
years. In this home Gilder wrote his poems, and his 
wife drew the illustrations and designed the covers of 
the books in which they were published. In this home 
Gilder wrote his first baby song for his first baby, which 
died young and brought the first great sorrow. But 
another baby boy came, and he never tired of studying 
the miracle of babyhood. 

The Gilder home.—What a home this Gilder home 
was! Meager in luxuries, it became wealthy in the noble 
people it welcomed. With unobtrusive humility, all who 
were struggling to make their way in the world were 
heartily welcomed at the Gilder fireside. Joseph Jeffer- 
son, that great actor in the cast of Rip Van Winkle; Stan- 
ford White, the noted architect; and Madame Modjeska 
often resorted there. Walt Whitman wrote, “You must 
never forget this of the Gilders, that at a time when 
almost everybody in their set threw me down they were 
nobly and unhesitatingly hospitable.” 

Five growing children throve in this happy circle, but 
their mother ever seemed to have leisure to greet all who 
wished to tarry for an evening with them. Kipling came 
with his wife and dined with all the dignity they could 
afford. Paderewski came and romped with the children 
hilariously. John Burroughs, the naturalist, often visited 
these people and met many friends there, while Gilder, 
not seeming to have already enough to take care of, 
organized an authors’ society which met regularly. 

The Gilder circle of acquaintance.—This simple love 
for people which characterized the Gilders brought its 
own reward, for they were blessed and honored with 
one of the most notable circles of friends possessed by 
any persons during the nineteenth century. Friends came 
just naturally; the Gilders never ostentatiously sought 
them. At times it would seem as if Richard Watson 


294 BUIEDERS ORF THEIGH URGE 


Gilder knew everybody worth knowing in the entire civi- 
lized world. At the Buffalo Exposition he dined with 
Vice-President Roosevelt, and again, just before ex- 
President Roosevelt sailed for Africa, he breakfasted 
with him and wrote to his wife that it was a hilarious 
time with the President “like a boy out of school, pound- 
ing the table with both noisy fists when they sang, 
‘There'll be a hot time in the Jungle, to-night!’” Stan- 
ford White aided in refinishing his first home. Julia 
Marlowe dined with"him at one of his later birthdays. 

One day he took Mark Twain and Riley to the White 
House to introduce them to the President. A few years 
later he addressed a letter to Mark Twain in England, 
and not knowing his exact location put on the envelope, 
“God knows where.” The letter reached Twain. Later 
a letter was sent to Twain inscribed, “The devil knows 
where.” And that reached him too! 

He knew ministers and liked them, and found time to 
write appreciative and penetrating letters to distinguished 
clergymen. Then he played golf with Andrew Carnegie, 
whom he thought to be very inconsistent. John G. 
Nicolay, who was the private secretary to President 
Lincoln, was intimately acquainted with Gilder because 
of the much writing he had done in connection with 
the martyred President. But when Nicolay died he 
was almost alone, though Gilder went with his body to 
the grave. 

Saint Gaudens, the famous sculptor, was an intimate 
in the Gilder home, and when he passed away members 
of the Gilder family attended his funeral and the poet 
sent forth his beautiful psalm, ““Under the Stars.” Then 
one reads how Richard Pearson Hobson in a little room 
told Gilder and a few intimate friends how he came to 
sink the Merrimac in the harbor of Santiago and bottle 
up the Spanish Fleet. With Lowell, Longfellow, and 
a host of others he was upon most intimate terms. If 
it be true that a man is judged by his friends, Richard 


THE POET A BUILDER 295 


Watson Gilder was a great man, for he had most un- 
usual folk for his comrades. 

When Gilder was yet a young man, Dr. Holland, the 
editor of Scribner’s Magazine, died and Gilder succeeded 
him. A new company was formed and the name of this 
publication was changed to The Century. 

The Century Magazine.—This new venture in the 
literary world called for the greatest wisdom; for The 
Century sought to render a service for a finer civiliza- 
tion when the ten-cent magazines with their lurid fiction 
threatened to swamp the market. Gilder set himself to 
the task of seeing that his readers gained only the best 
from the pages he put before them. He interviewed such 
a man as Robert Louis Stevenson and secured manu- 
scripts from him, and he procured the best that Mark 
Twain wrote. He offered General Grant a handsome 
sum for the privilege of printing his Memoirs. He inter- 
viewed J. P. Morgan in connection with writing on capi- 
tal and labor unions. He went to Princeton to see Wood- 
row Wilson about historical contributions. Even Wil- 
liam Jennings Bryan, whom he did not fancy, was invited 
to his columns. “To think,’ he wrote, “Bryan will have 
an article in The Century!” 

Ideals for writers.—In dealing with those manu- 
scripts which were submitted to him Gilder was often 
sweeping in his judgments, and shrank not from point- 
ing out flaws in the work of all men, whether the work 
was submitted by Kipling or Longfellow. Immorality 
which feigned to be art outraged him and he handled 
mercilessly those lecherously impassioned bawds who 
projected their foul presénces into society under the guise 
of being artists. To one writer he said, “Really you 
do not honor your art when you think it necessary to 
stir up such a stench in language to have it effective. 

You have a finer art than requires such violence.” 


‘From Letters of Richard Watson Gilder, by Rosamond Gilder. 
. Houghton Mifflin Company, publishers. Used by permission. 


296 BUIDDERS OF THE CHURCH 


Under such noble and careful editing, it is not surpris- 
ing that The Century grew to be a power for good in 
American life—a position which it still holds even to this 
very day. It did not appeal to bigots, and when some South- 
erner protested about the Life of Lincoln, by Nicolay and 
Hay, which was appearing in it as a serial, Gilder stated 
that first and last the truth, and not his or anybody else’s 
opinions, dominated the content of The Century. 

The copyright law.—One is not surprised that with 
Gilder’s interest in literature he was greatly interested 
in the attempt of authors to prevent people in other coun- 
tries and publishers in America from stealing their pro- 
ductions. When certain works were published there 
existed no law in America which would prevent anybody, 
who so desired, from copying the work entire and issu- 
ing it for profit. This, unfortunately, was being done, 
and men who never expended an ounce of effort were 
making money at the expense of those who toiled for 
good literature. 

Such men as Henry Watterson—“Marse Henry’— 
Longfellow, and Lowell were enlisted, and the Copyright 
League was organized, which proposed to have a law 
enacted which would protect publishers and writers from 
this crime of literary piracy. 

Lowell became president of this society. Gilder 
worked hard in getting Congress to take action. “I think 
it is absolutely disgraceful,’ he wrote, “that congressmen 
should have to be hunted and chased in order to get them 
to do their public duties.” Some people said that if this 
bill were enacted into a law, books would cost more. To 
all of which Gilder retorted, “If we could steal our 
wheat from Manitoba, the stolen wheat would be cheaper 
than the wheat that has been paid for,” but asserted this 
was no reason why we should steal such wheat. To a 
friend he said, “It is to me an unendurable national dis- 
grace that Americans should stand out against all the 
world as a nation of literary thieves.” 


THE POET A BUILDER 297 


Lowell himself supported Gilder, and in this connection 
issued his little verse which is still remembered: 


“In vain we call old notions fudge, 
And bend our conscience to our dealing, 
The Ten Commandments wili not budge, 
And stealing will continue stealing.” 


As a result of this work in which Gilder was so con- 
spicuous, and as an outcome of his many interviews with 
representatives and senators, in 1891, during an all night 
session, Congress passed this bill and it still remains a 
law of the nation, protecting publishers’ and authors’ 
rights to their work. 

Free kindergartens.—About this same time Professor 
Butler, now president of Columbia University, was toil- 
ing for free kindergartens in the schools of the city of 
New York, and an association was formed to acquaint the 
people with the inestimable value of these institutions. 
In 1891 the kindergarten method made its way into the 
schools. Gilder became a member of this association and 
by written and spoken word supported this movement 
for the betterment of little children. In 1892 the Board 
of Education of New York started with twenty kinder- 
gartens in the public schools, and to-day this method of 
teaching children has won its way and is common. Gilder 
had time to give to little children despite his many other 
pressing duties. 

Other services to his city ——In many other ways this 
poet served his city. He was most influential in raising 
funds to build the present Washington Arch, which 
stands at the foot of the beautiful Fifth Avenue, and 
climbed to the top and placed one of the last three stones 
which make up this noble pile. He wrote a poem when 
the present Egyptian Obelisk was placed in Central Park 
near the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When incom- 
petence was in control of this museum, he was unspar- 
ing in his denunciation. 


298 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


He was president of the New York Association of the 
Blind. He was with Lyman Abbott at the dedication of 
the beautiful Grant's Tomb which adorns Riverside 
Drive. 

The tenement-house commission.—Most conspicu- 
ous among Gilder’s many worthful services to New York 
city was his activity in ridding the city of a lot of dirty 
tenement houses, breeding places of foul disease. In 
1894 the governor of the State of New York appointed 
him chairman of a commission to investigate tenement- 
house conditions in this metropolis. Gilder did not care 
for this added burden, but so great was the responsibility 
which he felt for the way in which the less favored citi- 
zens about him lived that he finally consented to serve. 
“Tt is a painful duty, but one which I cannot shirk even 
in hot weather.” And so he gave up his vacation and 
“waded heart-deep in misery all summer long.” 

What Gilder undertook he carried through thoroughly. 
Working on this commission, he investigated old and 
new houses, made note of the races living in them, ob- 
served where the various nationalities were quartered, 
took stock of the income of the people, and inquired as 
to how the health regulations were enforced. He also 
interested himself in the matter of public parks and found 
them woefully wanting. Public playgrounds were denied 
the children. Fire prevention was inefficient, and the 
majority of fires in the city were in these tenement houses 
where the water supply was wholly inadequate from 
the point of view of sanitation. 

The report of the commission.—When this fatiguing 
work had been accomplished the following facts were 
learned and reported to the public: A legal body of men 
who administered the many properties belonging to a 
prominent New York church was discovered to be fight- 
ing the Board of Health which had asked it to conform 
to the law and have water supply upon every floor of 
the tenements which it owned. Furthermore, it was 


JHEJPOETIA BUILDER 299 


found that the buildings controlled by this corporation 
were in terrible condition and out of repair and de- 
liberately kept so upon the plea that they were soon to 
be torn down. Gilder made a gallant attack upon these 
and other conditions and refused to shield any owners 
whatsoever who kept wretched dwellings for the poor. 

The newspapers became interested and began to dis- 
cuss this matter, and at length the public conscience be- 
came aroused over the brutal injustice of obliging the 
poor of a great, rich city to live in these charnel-houses, 
for many of these horrible tenements were scarcely less 
than that. 

The Legislature took up the matter. The New York 
Mail, The World, Tribune, Times, Herald, and Evening 
Post all supported Gilder in his mighty attempt to re- 
move this great real estate sore from the heart of the 
city. A great fight took place at Albany, but Gilder as 
a volunteer went to Albany and fought until laws were 
made which remedied conditions. And when he wrote 
concerning the owners of these foul tenements, 


“Guardians of a holy trust 
Who, in your rotting tenements, 
Housed the people, till the offense 
Rose to the Heaven of the Just,’” 


one can readily understand how his moral fury roused 
the people and the Legislature. 

Laws were enacted which obligated builders to en- 
large the air space, heighten their ceilings, deepen their 
basements, give better light to the walls, and sanitary in- 
spectors were provided to see that these provisions were 
carried out. Furthermore, small parks were required to 
be used as playgrounds for the children. And as for 
those beastly tenements? In 1896 the Board of Health 


*Richard Watson Gilder. Used by permission of Houghton 
Mifflin Company. 


300 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


condemned more than two hundred of them as “unfit for 
human habitation” and they were razed to the ground. 
When any man to-day moves to the city of New York 
and lives in a house which he does not own, such a man 
has a better home because of what Gilder did. 

We have not room to tell of the great events which this 
poet concerned himself with—how he was a most inti- 
mate friend of Grover Cleveland, and helped with his 
election and aided Mrs. Cleveland when this great man 
died. Nor can we tell of his services in behalf of the 
Civil Service reform, or of the great honors bestowed 
upon him by Harvard, Wesleyan, Princeton, and other 
universities in America and France, for he asked to be 
remembered as a poet, and to his poetry we must 
turn. 

The religion of Gilder—This poet had a deep reli- 
gious loyalty. He believed his poetry came from God, 
and in writing to that princely man, Professor Win- 
chester, of Wesleyan, about some verse newly composed, 
he concluded, “The Lord was good to me.” The pro- 
fundity of his insight may best be illustrated from a 
letter to a friend: “Well, the world is stocked with peo- 
ple who mistake pleasure for happiness. . . . A per- 
son who says, ‘I am content with the shadows of things, 
the shams, the less fine, the impure,’ is like one who 
should say, ‘I do not like clean bread and meat; give me 
swill.’ 2 

In his religion Gilder goes to the very roots of truth; 
he can be satisfied with nothing less. Behind the universe 
is the unseen; but not the unknown. Where others grope, 
Gilder is sure. Behind the creation, in the shadow, 
stands none other than God. 


“Through love to light! Through light, O God, to thee, 
Who art the love of love, the eternal light of light!” 


*From Letters of Richard Watson Gilder, edited by Rosamond 
Gilder. Houghton Mifflin Company, publishers. Used by per- 
mission. 


THE POET A BUILDER 301 


Gilder well knew that many men had no friendship 
with God. Sin made men distrust God, lose God, or 
disappoint God. The cowardice and brutality of it all— 
Gilder was clear cut in this. He knew that all sane men 
have a great struggle, and that unless they win in the 
fray they are undone. 


“Sometimes I hug that hellish happiness ; 
And then a loathing falls upon my soul 
For what I was, and am, and still must be.” 


In all his poetry Gilder is seeking for God. His very 
life may honestly be said to have begun and ended in 
God. This God whom he found early in life he believed 
to be very near and told his many readers about it. It 
was never difficult for Gilder to worship the God he 
discovered. He knew the meaning of that august phrase, 
“the beauty of holiness.” The passion of his life was 
to make his faith contagious for the lives of those round 
about him. With a solid note he sings a scale that is 
ascending in the glory of its theme. Faith in God—that 
was his glory. 


“Tt loves where all is loveless; it endures 
In the long passion of the soul for God.” 


This is the faith that overcomes the world. 

The center of all Gilder’s life was Christ. This alone 
can explain why he achieved as a builder with such con- 
summate skill. His poems become almost rhapsodies 
when he mounts that vast theme—Christ. 


“Behold him now where he comes! 
Not the Christ of our subtile creeds, 
But the Lord of our hearts, of our homes.’” 


Perhaps, however, the source of the loyalty which made 


From In Palestine. Houghton Mifflin Company, publishers. 
Used by permission. 

*From The Passing of Christ. Houghton Mifflin Company, 
publishers. Used by permission, 


302 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


Gilder stay in the hot city in August and look into mal- 
odorous tenements may be found in this love for Christ. 

The dreaded guest.—A life so full could not last for- 
ever. On November 18, 1909, though ill, he wrote a 
number of letters, and then his heart weakened, and 
before they could gather his friends he had gone. About 
an hour before he died he penned the following words 
to his daughter Rosamond: “Tennyson’s career is unique, 
interesting, and beautiful in its prolongation. He was 
more fortunate than Emerson in that his mental facul- 
ties were in perfect shape to a ripe old age, and he 
wrote some of his sagest and loveliest things in the last 
days—there seems to have been an otherworld light in 
these latest utterances. You see him standing serene in 
the afterglow, awaiting in tranquillity the natural end.” 
And as Richard Watson Gilder penned these lines in 
almost the last hours of his life he must have heard the 
angel with his hand upon the door, turning the latch 
to enter. For, as he writes of Tennyson, he bares 
his inner soul that men may see his visions at the 
sunset. 

When the end came his loved ones might well have de- 
clared to a heavy-hearted world Gilder’s own words 
written for Mrs. Cleveland at the death of her husband: 
“To this house, in this day, came a guest long dreaded— 
but whom we saw at last through eyes of grief, to be 
the angel of Peace and Rest, of Victory and Everlasting 
Life.” 

Well done, Richard Watson Gilder. The church is 
stronger, better and nobler because you builded. 


Stupy Topics 


1. What is the value to the development of one’s character of 
a wide circle of worth-while friends? How did Gilder’s friends 
help him to achieve greatness? 

2. Enumerate the causes which Gilder supported. As a sup- 
porter of these causes how was Gilder helping to build the 
church? 


THE POET A BUILDER 303 


3. What contribution has and should the press make to the 
spread of Christianity? 

4. Mention other poets that have been builders of the church. 
Cite illustrations from their writings. 

5. What religious ideals were embodied in Gilder’s poems? 
How may these ideals become a part of one’s life? 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Gilder, Rosamond—Letters of Richard Watson Gilder. Hough- 
ton Mifflin Company. 
Downey, David G—Modern Poets and Christian Teaching. 


CHAPTER XXX 


WILLIAM TAYLOR AND, THE* BUILDING: Of 
AN INTERNATIONAL CHURCH 


WittiaM Tay or early in life became a school teacher. 
His preparation for this kind of work was very limited, 
but in those days the education in the backwoods of Vir- 
ginia was primitive in the extreme. While away from 
home teaching he chanced to attend a Methodist camp 
meeting, and under the terrible denunciation of sin 
there heard he was moved to seek forgiveness and was 
converted to God. 

Though he had shown no special aptitude, his district 
superintendent approached him and asked him to go and 
preach. “But I have no preparation and no schooling,” 
retorted Taylor. “Take the Methodist Hymnal and your 
Bible and go, fearing no evil,’ was the answer returned 
to his objection—and Taylor went. | 

California.—In those days there was an unwritten law 
in the church that no young minister was to become mar- 
ried until after he had served four years out upon the 
frontiers. As soon, however, as his four years expired, 
Taylor promptly married and served churches in the 
then small city of Washington, the nation’s capital, and 
afterward in Baltimore. While laboring in this latter 
city gold was discovered in California and the people 
from the East were crossing the Western plains, losing 
their lives upon the great American desert, crowding the 
sailing vessels which battled with the storms, going clear 
around Cape Horn in the effort to reach this land of 
gold and promise. Thousands left their bones bleaching 
under the hot sun of the desert and other hundreds lost 
their lives upon the boisterous seas—but still they went. 


304 


—— 


AN INTERNATIONAL CHURCH 305 


So great was the number of people in California that 
the Methodists thought some ministers ought to go there, 
and Bishop Waugh invited Taylor to an interview in 
which he portrayed the need in California and asked him 
if he would enlist for service in that wild country. 

A courageous decision.—Taylor consulted his wife, 
and she, brave woman, consented to go. In those days 
when one went to California he bade all his friends fare- 
well, never more expecting to see them again on this 
earth. Almost six months were consumed by the journey 
and while the ship was passing through the stormy 
Straits of Magellan, a little girl was born to Mrs. Taylor 
and was named “Oceana.” She brightened their lives for 
two years, when death claimed her, and she was buried 
in California. In 1849 this small family arrived at San 
Francisco with some personal supplies and a Bible given 
to Mr. Taylor for services by one of the churches in 
Baltimore. Thus Eastern Methodism began to support 
her program in the West, which now happily has grown 
strong. 

Conditions in California—Human society was in an 
abnormal confusion when Taylor reached San Francisco. 
Fortunes were to be made either by “working” or by 
gambling or by digging gold. Cooks secured three hun- 
dred dollars per month; but card-playing was considered 
most profitable and most respectable. 

Flour was fifty dollars a barrel, butter two dollars 
and fifty cents a pound, milk a dollar a quart, and Tay- 
lor bought three chickens at the specially low price of 
eighteen dollars. 

To obtain a house was utterly impossible. For two 
weeks the Taylor family lived in a tent, and then this 
sturdy preacher, crossing the bay to where the city of 
Oakland now is, joined some lumbermen and cut down the 
fine redwood trees growing there, brought them across 
the bay, and built his own house with his own hands, 
together with such slight help as some busy merchants 


306 BUTE DB RSTO PathEL biG ite 


could find time to give him. And thus he was one of the 
few men in those early days who had a relatively comfort- 
able home of his own. 

Foundations of religion.—Taylor immediately went 
to work to lay broad foundations for a great religion 
in that part of America. He bought a horse—a great 
luxury—and traveled hundreds of miles about San 
Francisco organizing the little church. While doing this 
his life was risked daily. He met with drunkards and 
“bad men”; he slept with grizzly bears about him in the 
groves of redwoods: he preached in the saloons, where 
men stood about him with loaded revolvers. 

While upon one of his journeys he met that great 
statesman, Isaac Owen, who founded Methodism in the 
Sacramento Valley. Owen had raised a large sum for 
the endowment of what is now called De Pauw Uni- 
versity, and after a hazardous trip across the plains was 
giving his life to the establishment of religion in the 
West and it was due to this great pioneer’s effort that 
the University of the Pacific was founded. 

Street preaching.—Soon after his arrival he an- 
nounced public services upon the Plaza. Sometimes dry- 
goods boxes and at other times whisky barrels consti- 
tuted his platform. Being an excellent singer, he soon 
gained the attention of these rough men, and upon a 
Sunday afternoon they forsook their gambling and drink- 
ing and came out of the saloons to hear what he had to 
say. If it rained, these services were often held inside 
the saloons. 

Sickness and distress.—In such primitive society 
great epidemics took a terrible toll. Cholera seriously 
decimated the camps and towns, loss of money drove 
many people insane, and when people died there were 
few to take care of their bodies. Taylor himself dug 
the grave of Isaac Owen’s two-year-old baby. One day 
he was walking down the street and met a little boy cry- 
ing. Upon inquiring what was the matter, the little lad 


AN INTERNATIONAL CHURCH 307 


replied, ““Daddy’s dead and I don’t know what to do with 
him.” It was so. The child’s father had died in a tent, 
and there was no other person in the State of California 
to take care of this boy. 

The shabby city hospital was crowded. The ill were 
robbed, their thirst was neglected, they slept in filth, and 
often the doctors and orderlies were criminally neglectful 
and brutal. The loneliness of the men was too pitiful to 
describe. Many of them had left happy families in the 
East and longed to see them again. Others had sent for 
their wives and families, and when the ship upon which 
their loved ones were supposed to have sailed did not 
enter port upon time, or was reported lost, their mental 
distress was pitiable indeed. Scenes attending the enter- 
ing of a ship into harbor were vivid beyond imagination. 
Husbands with the tears rolling down their faces clasped 
their wives in their arms. Others went aboard ship only 
to be met by their children and to be told that the mother 
of the family had sickened and died and had been buried 
at sea. After toiling among these people for seven years 
and seeing many young but vigorous churches pro- 
gressing, Taylor returned to New York in 1857 with his 
wife and those children who had not been buried in 
California. 

The return home.—Arriving in the East, Taylor and 
his wife visited their friends and relatives in Rockridge 
County in Virginia, who were overjoyed, never having 
expected to see them again in this world. He had 
traveled through the West and up into Canada, telling 
people of the opportunities for the church in California. 
For all this he received no money, and when his boy died 
in 1857 he did not have the means of purchasing a 
casket. Loyal friends came to his rescue, and this boy, 
whom he loved dearly, was buried in Brooklyn. 

At this time the adventures of David Livingstone were 
profoundly stirring the Christian imagination throughout 
the length and breadth of the world, and people who be- 


308 BUILDERSI OR THE CHURCH 


lieved in the universality of the Christian message were 
quickened when they realized the possibilities of Africa 
belonging to Jesus Christ and controlled by the spirit 
of his personality. William Taylor thought more 
daringly than did any of his contemporaries. That the 
time was ripe when Christians should embark upon the 
mightiest crusade in all their history he was convinced. 
So persuaded was he that this time had come that he 
resolved to give himself up to this majestic ideal and 
never quit until he had preached to people about Jesus 
Christ upon every continent then known. 

Australia.—Acting upon this gigantic principle, Tay- 
lor sent his wife and children back to California and set 
sail for Australia. The Civil War was on and he took 
time off in England to write a pamphlet defending the 
North against its critics in Britain. Eleven thousand 
copies of this were sold. Also he was permitted to take 
a trip through the Holy Land, where he slept in the 
Garden of Gethsemane. Later on he entered the pyra- 
mids of Egypt and then, after crossing the Isthmus of 
Suez, continued on to Australia. 

This vast continent of Australia for many years had 
been a dumping ground for the criminals of England, 
but when gold was discovered a rush of men went south 
even as they had gone west to California. There were 
some small towns and cities established along the south- 
ern coast; yet if one went fifteen miles into the hinterland, 
life was almost primeval. 

Taylor traveled from one end of the civilized part of 


the great continent to the other. He raised funds which 


helped to found Victoria College in Melbourne; he visited 
the gold fields and preached to the miners; he preached 
upon the streets and went from one church to another, 
always speaking to packed houses. 

After strengthening Christianity upon the continent, 
he went to Tasmania and preached in Hobart, its prin- 
cipal city, and in other parts of the island. After four 


AN INTERNATIONAL CHURCH 309 


years away from home Mrs. Taylor took the long journey 
from California to Australia and again met her husband 
in Sidney. One of their sons became ill, and to restore 
his health they took a slow-sailing boat to Africa and 
arrived safely at Cape Town. 

Africa.—With that marvelous ability to adapt himself 
to all kinds of conditions, Taylor felt called of God to 
minister to the people who were living in Africa. He 
began his work in the south among the white people, 
but later advanced north along the trail which Living- 
stone had blazed, and continued his work in the villages 
of the Kaffirs and Hottentots. He rode upon bullocks, 
was nearly killed by an alligator, was pursued by the 
African Bushman, who could run as fast as he could 
drive his galloping horse. 

For two years he labored among these black people 
and saw for himself the transformation which the spirit 
of Christ worked in their lives. The Kaffirs, who were 
an especially upstanding race, well built and intelligent, 
welcomed his messages. They publicly broke their beer 
pots and gave up drinking—a habit fastened upon them 
by the cruel white slave-traders. Their harems were also 
disbanded and they lived with one wife only because of 
their loyalty to the principles of Jesus. 

Finally he determined to return to London and stopped 
upon the island of Saint Helena, where Napoleon was 
then buried (before his body was removed to Paris), and 
at last reached England. 

India——One would have thought that, since Mrs. 
Taylor had returned to California with her children, and 
that with these many years away from home, her hus- 
band would have had his fill of this sort of life and been 
happy to settle down. But the vision of an inter- 
national Christianity was before him, and he could find 
no peace save as he was toiling to bring his vision to 
pass. 

Next he went to India, where at Lucknow and Cal- 


310 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


cutta crowds came to listen to him. Proud old Brahmans 
at first held aloof; still with practical eloquence Taylor 
preached to them concerning the superiority of the per- 
sonality of Jesus, until one of this high caste exclaimed: 
“Tl think no more of my own religion. I'll think of 
Christy 

Finally going to Bombay, he discovered that there was 
no Methodist church within eight hundred miles of this 
city and began preaching with the consent of the city 
authorities, using the Town Hall for services. 

Parsees.—India, then as now, was under the curse of 
the undemocratic caste system. Among the aristocrats 
of this system were the Parsees, who had rejected the 
cruder form of animal worship and tried to worship God 
by means of the elements, especially fire. They never 
buried their dead, but erected Towers of Silence atop the 
surrounding hills, upon which they placed their dead to 
become food for the vultures and other birds of prey. 
Unless the spirit of Jesus was mighty enough to break 
down this caste system, Taylor knew that the church 
could not be built upon everlasting foundations in India. 
The spirit of Jesus Christ cannot thrive in the presence 
of either social or religious snobbery. So powerful, 
however, was the truth Taylor preached that Parsees 
were converted, and in 1872 a Methodist Church was 
organized in Bombay. A member of the Light Brigade, 
made immortal by Tennyson’s poem, “The Charge of the 
Light Brigade,’ was converted under his preaching. 
When Taylor left for America he knew Christianity 
was more firmly established among the Hindus. 

Other shorter journeys.—Previously no Christian 
disciples had traveled as extensively as did William Tay- 
lor. Aside from these long tours he made several shorter 
ones to various parts of the world. In 1869 he re- 
turned to Australia. In 1870 he visited the garden spot 
of the world, the island of Ceylon. Before coming back 
home he visited the Barbadoes, and thence went to British 





AN INTERNATIONAL CHURCH 311 


Guiana, where he had experiences with leopards and also 
had the privilege of preaching to some lepers—an oppor- 
tunity which moved him to tears. 

By 1877 this old warrior noted in his diary that he 
had taken more than sixty sea voyages, and that from 
the beginning of his journeys he had given his services 
without cost to the church. One would have thought, ere 
this, that he would have desired some rest; but it was 
not to be. For up out of South America came a cry for 
Christ. William Taylor heard it and went. 

Earthquake.—He sailed with a shipload of bullocks. 
Arriving at Iquique on the western coast of South 
America, he experienced one of those earthquakes which 
are frequently followed by a terrible tidal wave. His 
house was so shaken that he blew out his candle to avoid 
setting the structure on fire. When he went out on the 
street the movement of the ground was no less terrifying. 
“In fifteen minutes the tidal wave will be here. To the 
hills!’ shouted his neighbors, and so to the hills he ran 
for his life. 

The call for teachers.—At Valparaiso he organized the 
Seaman’s Evangelical Society in order to give the sailors 
some Christian home atmosphere while they were in the 
harbor. He soon determined that the immediate need of 
South America was for Christian teachers. Therefore 
he set himself to the work of raising money for their 
support from among those people who were living in 
South America themselves, and after the money was 
raised for Christian teachers in many of the larger cities 
upon this continent he returned north to place this great 
challenge before the Christian youth of the colleges and 
universities. 

Recruiting soldiers for the international expansion. 
He called upon the college graduates to enlist for this 
service in South America, where their salaries would 
be small, where their lives would be in danger, where 
malaria and yellow fever throve, and where earthquakes 


Ble BUTT DERS OR VUE EO HOR Git 


smote the shores and tidal waves washed the inhabitants 
out to sea and drowned them. 

The young people enlisted and went as steerage pas- 
sengers. When two ladies arrived at Concepcion, the 
people were angry that they had come. William A. 
Wright found his wife’s health broken and was obliged 
to return home. C. A. Birdsall went to Aspinwall, where 
the climate brought about his death. Richard Copp went 
to Panama, where he nursed the sick and comforted the 
dying until his health gave out too and he went home. 
John Nelson died of fever and his brother wrote: “John 
is dead. Send me in his place.” And so it was that 
the flower of the American colleges enlisted in this 
crusade and lost their lives. It may be truly said that 
the church in South America to-day is built because of 
the blood of these American martyrs. 

Bishop Taylor.—When the church finally became 
aware of what a statesman it had in the person of Wil- 
liam Taylor, and how he had brought to Christians a 
vivid picture of Jesus Christ as Lord of the whole 
world—Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and Aus- 
tralia—they made haste to place greater responsibilities 
upon his shoulders and elected him Bishop of Africa. 

The victory.—And did it pay, this life of pilgrimage, 
this going to and fro, this sacrificing? 

A few years ago, the Christian Church arose in its 
might and consecrated its wealth and its youth to a new 
extension of the kingdom of God. The expression of this 
inner spiritual crisis was the New Era Movement of 
the Presbyterian Church, the Advance Movement of 
the Episcopal Church and the Centenary of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, and similar movements in other 
churches. The words of Jesus, “Go ye into all the world,” 
have become more vivid than ever since he first uttered 
them. Heretofore men believed some of these things 
abstractly. Now they believe them so concretely that 
they are giving their money and their lives. This new 


AN INTERNATIONAL CHURCH 313 


day comes because William Taylor by his life and by his 
deeds first persuaded men that nobler conquests yet were 
in store for those who would dare follow Christ. He 
was one of the first to bring to the church the interna- 
tional mind. 


Stupy Topics 


1. What are the marks of a world Christian? How many of 
these marks do you find in your own life? 

2. To what extent has the spread of Christianity throughout 
the entire world helped to develop an international church? 
What obstacles are in the way of a thoroughly international 
church? How are these to be removed? 

3. How has the spread of Christianity throughout the world 
affected the living conditions and economic, industrial, social, 
and educational status of the people? 

4. Indicate briefly the outstanding contributions made by 
William Taylor to the building of the church. 


SUGGESTED READINGS 
Taylor, William—Story of My Life. 


CHAPTER XXXI 


WASHINGTON GLADDEN APPLIES CHRIS- 
LIANITY) TO! POLITICS ANDVINDUST ih 


Or relatively recent development is the consciousness 
that the church has a duty to perform toward politics 
on the one hand and the world of business upon the other. 
Charles Kingsley and Robert William Dale did some- 
what in England along this line, but as yet the church in 
America dealt not with the evil arising out of big busi- 
ness simply because big business is a thing of late origin. 
Representative of what the church had sought to ac- 
complish in this field are the labors of a Congregational 
minister, Washington Gladden, whose death, in 1918, 
proved a distinct loss to our country. 

Well born was Washington Gladden, for both his 
parents were school teachers, living in Pottsgrove, Penn- 
sylvania, when, February 11, 1836, they welcomed his 
entry into the world. Though there was no extra money 
to garnish this home, still the culture and refinement 
made a lasting contribution to the life of this boy. Glad- 
den’s father personally conducted his earliest education 
and both parents were steadfast in their loyalty to the 
church. | 

The ride to Southampton.—Because of the death of 
his father, his mother resolved to send him to the little 
town of Southampton, Massachusetts, which nestles 
away under the lee of the rock Mount Tom, at the foot 
of the Berkshire Hills, where he might visit his grand- 
parents for a season. The entire journey from Penn- 
sylvania was made with horse and buggy to the great 
fatigue of this youngster. 

Going over the Bay Path trail from Albany to Spring- 


314 





POLITICS AND INDUSTRY 315 


field for the first time in his life, this traveler saw the 
recently opened railroad which connected Boston with 
Albany. A year or so Gladden stayed in this charming 
New England village with his relatives and then returned 
home to his mother. 

Fortune with Gladden’s mother dropped lower, oblig- 
ing him to live with his uncle for the remainder of his 
boyhood days. Ebenezer Daniels, this uncle, was a very 
young man and an arduous toiler. His love for good 
literature nevertheless gave Gladden access to one of the 
finest libraries to be found among common people of that 
day. Most of the books were upon travel; but they were 
well selected and purged the reader of a provincial mind. 

Drudgery upon the Daniels farm was severe and the 
opportunities for school limited. Gladden’s uncle, how- 
ever, treated him kindly, and after his tasks were finished, 
the evenings were spent in spelling matches, debates at 
the schoolhouse, or in reading aloud by the candlelight 
in the farmhouse kitchen. 

Early religion—Regularly Gladden attended church. 
Although the services were conducted three miles away, 
and often the journey was made in a rough lumber wagon 
which had no springs, the household of Ebenezer Daniels 
never failed to be present. The sermons were rather 
tiresome and dull, and of little interest to this boy. Sec- 
tarian spirit ran high. Baptists, Methodists, and Presby- 
terians knew no better than to preach against each other, 
and they joined forces in preaching against the Uni- 
versalists. Once a Universalist minister was called in 
for a funeral, and although many friends gathered, most 
of them remained outside of the house so that they coulc 
not hear what the minister said at the service and thus 
become contaminated with his terrible teachings! 

With such a narrow expression of religion, it is not 
surprising that the thoughtful Gladden became much per- 
plexed, but finally was able to record his liberation in 
the following words: “It was not until my eighteenth 


216 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


year that a clear-headed minister lifted me out of this pit 
and made me see that it was perfectly safe to trust the 
heavenly Father’s love for me and walk straight on in 
ways of service, waiting for no raptures, but doing his 
will as best I knew it, and confiding in his friendship.” 
When Gladden knew that this was vital religion, he had 
no further difficulties in accepting it; but had many 
battles to win in living it. 

College and the start in life—Williams College in 
Gladden’s undergraduate days was no such institution as 
it is at present. ‘A little more than half a dozen’ profes- 
sors comprised its faculty, and about sixty students were 
registered, while the buildings which housed these stu- 
dents were no cause for pride. 

But Williams boasted of Mark Hopkins as president 
in those days, and that was enough. This exact and 
thorough scholar was worth a college course in himself. 
At an alumni banquet in Delmonico’s in New York city, 
it was none other than President Garfield who said, “A 
pine bench, with Mark Hopkins at one end of it and 
me at the other, is good enough college for me!” Liv- 
ing humbly and rarely paying as much as two dollars and 
seventy-five cents a week for board, Gladden throve and 
matured in this unusually stout atmosphere of the mind. 

It was a notable gathering of young men who attended 
Williams at that time, including such men as James A. 
Garfield, the future President, in the senior class, and 
Scudder, the great editor of the Atlantic Monthly, among 
the freshmen. Gladden secured a job as college reporter 
for The Springfield Republican, one of the outstanding 
newspapers of America during the past fifty years. The 
Republican was then a truly great paper under the mighty 
editorship of Samuel Bowles and Josiah G. Holland, and 
the friendship established with these men abode for the 
rest of their lives. 

In 1859, through the influence of Thomas K. Beecher, 
who was “no stickler at ecclesiastical proprieties,”’ this 


POR USA N DetN DUS RY, 317 


college youth was admitted to the Susquehanna Assocta- 
tion of Congregational Ministers and preached for a 
short time in the little village of Raysville, after which 
he accepted a call to the First Congregational Methodist 
Church in Brooklyn—a body of people who were dis- 
organized and full of dissension. 

The Christian Commission.—During the Civil War 
Gladden entered the Christian Commission and ministered 
to the ill and dying soldiers in the front trenches, saw 
Lincoln riding along the line on horseback with a large 
plug hat upon his head, met General Grant, and had many 
other interesting experiences, but an attack of malaria 
forced him to return home again. 

War being over, Gladden accepted the pastorate of the 
church in North Adams, Massachusetts—near his old 
college. Here he read Horace Bushnell’s books and be- 
came a loyal admirer of this great man, who, as we have 
seen, was breaking the shackles of an outworn belief. 
When Gladden was ordained the great Bushnell preached 
his ordination sermon and Mark Hopkins presided on 
the occasion. 

In North Adams, Gladden entered the business of an 
old-fashioned New England town, with its purest democ- 
racy expressed in the “town meeting.” Literary produc- 
tions brought to this preacher an invitation to become 
one of the editors of the Independent, a very powerful 
weekly. Thinking that his influence for good might be 
greater, Gladden accepted this offer and for four years 
worked with this influential paper. 

After four years of service Gladden differed with the 
proprietors of the Independent regarding their policy of 
mixing advertisements with their editorials. He felt it 
dishonest, and because he could not refuse to obey his 
scruples, he resigned from the staff. 

The Tweed Ring.—About this time a circle of political 
thieves in control of the government of the city of New 
York were brazenly robbing the taxpayers, and extended 


318 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


their influence as far as Albany. They constituted a little 
autocracy and did as they pleased. Certain people pre- 
tended to believe that all was well with the city govern- 
ment and that this “ring’’ really gave good government. 
John Jacob Astor, Marshall O. Roberts, and Moses Tay- 
lor, together with three other well-known business men, 
professed to have looked over the books of the city 
comptroller and issued this statement: “We have come to 
the conclusion and certify that the financial affairs of 
the city under the charge of the comptroller, are admin- 
istered in a correct and faithful manner.” And all the 
while a colossal robbery was taking place! 

The New York Times and Harper’s Weekly did not 
accept this report, and continued to attack the corrupt 
officials. William Tweed and his co-thieves challenged, 
“What are you going to do about it?’ These papers kept 
at it. “They did not wait to strike until the iron was 
hot, they heated it by striking.’ At last George Jones 
revealed the true accounts of the city and they were 
printed in the Times, but not until Tweed had offered 
Jones five million dollars if he would keep quiet. Then 
Thomas Nast, of Harper’s Weekly, used his cartoons 
against this “ring,” and he in turn was offered a half 
million dollars if he would withdraw from the fray. 

During the month of August, 1871, Gladden was given 
full control of the Independent and seized this chance to 
turn all his guns upon these faithless grafters. Scathing 
were his editorials. Mighty were his indictments. His 
words burned as fire into the hearts of the hearers and 
the New York public was thoroughly aroused. 

Gladden had exposed the criminal neglect of the peo- 
ple in letting these men have their own way. It was 
estimated that from forty-five million to two hundred 
millions of dollars were extracted from the pockets of 
the citizens by these scoundrels. Investigation was made, 
trial followed trial, and in 1870 Tweed ended his life in 
Ludlow Street jail, while the others fled the country, 


POLITICS AND INDUSTRY 319 


Modern religion.—Religious reconstruction, as well as 
political, followed the war. February 1, 1875, Glad- 
den entered upon his pastorate in Springfield, Massa- 
chusetts. At this time the work of reverent scientists 
in connection with the Bible had demonstrated that it 
was not an inerrant book in all of its minute details. 
Protestant religion was beginning to change its founda- 
tion and make the living word of God its majestic au- 
thority in things of the Spirit. 

Revised version of the Bible—Many people were 
greatly disturbed because they knew that a body of 
scholars were working in the Jerusalem Chamber of 
Westminster Abbey upon a new version of the Bible. 
The very old Vatican, Alexandrian, and Sinaitic Bibles 
had been discovered since the Version of 1611 had been 
made, and these enabled the translators to be more 
accurate and to go back further than could those scholars 
who worked upon the King James Version. All of this 
information, however, did not remove the unrest abroad 
in the church, for certain ignorant people felt these trans- 
lators were tampering with the Bible and spoiling its 
accuracy. They insisted upon reading the Bible with no 
historical or poetical sense. Gladden took the view de- 
fending the new version. Many a youth who had turned 
away from the Bible was brought back to it again by 
Gladden’s simple information. The writer knows of no 
man to whom he is more indebted for the love he has to- 
ward the Bible than Washington Gladden. What he 
did for the writer he did for thousands of other troubled 
youth. He made the Bible reasonable. 

The church and industrial knowledge.—Gladden 
eventually came to the conclusion that the question of 
industrial right and wrong was a vital concern of the 
church. Some people said that the church was not com- 
petent to act in this field, but Gladden said: “Religious 
teachers have no right to be ignorant in this field. What 
use would you have for a physician who prescribed 


320 BULEDERS OSE Bat bil her 


for nettle-rash, but refused to treat smallpox and 
diphtheria ?” 

Others asserted that the business of the minister was 
to preach the “simple gospel,’ declaring, “Business is 
business and religion is religion.” All of which is to 
confess that business is pagan. But Gladden retorted to 
all who assumed this attitude: “Is there any other realm 
in which character, manhood, is more rapidly and more 
inevitably made or lost, than in this realm of industry?” 
And one may sum his position by quoting his words to 
a friend: “Are we really saving souls when we permit 
unchristian packing-house proprietors, steel magnates, 
and insurance wreckers to sit comfortably in our pews 
and enjoy our ministrations?” 

The leadership of the church.—That the human im- 
telligence and will had power profoundly to affect and 
direct the course of economic development Gladden firmly 
believed. It was the business of the church to direct this 
will. “The church must save society or go to ruin with 
it 

The senselessness of our present industrial system he 
attacked in lucid terms: ‘Nothing is plainer to me than 
that the existing system of industry with rigid organiza- 
tion of employers on the one side and laborers upon the 
other, each determined to override and subjugate the 
other, is the essence of unreason. The entire attitude of 
both parties is anti-social. It is simply absurd to imagine 
men are made to live together upon any such basis. They 
are putting themselves into conflict with the primary 
laws of life.’ And again he pronounced upon this same 
fact in a different manner, saying, that there was an 
“utter stupidity of industrial system based upon war, the 
enormous waste of common resources it involves; the far 
more destruction of moral wealth it involves.” 

Reception of the new view of the gospel.—Of 
course, when Gladden began to preach this truth in 
Columbus, not everybody believed him. Even now many 


POLITICS AND INDUSTRY 321 


reject this truth—to the hurt of society. First some em- 
ployers and finally laborers accepted his teachings, and 
hereafter strikes in the Hocking Valley were done away 
with, giving place to arbitration. 

Gladden did not believe in “socialism” as that term 1s 
used to-day. For, in the first place, he agreed with the 
socialists themselves, that humanity must be much better 
educated before it was even competent to attempt the 
socialist experiment. 

He did get people to see, as he went up and down 
the land, that the definite force of “good will” must sup- 
_ plant that outgrown and indefinite phrase “laissez faire,” 
(“Let people act and do as they choose”) before indus- 
trial peace and prosperity could come. “The application 
of the Christian law to industrial society would, it seems 
to me, solve this problem, and the church ought to know 
how to apply it.” : 

There is no space to tell how Gladden entered into the 
life of his city and worked for the ideals he preached 
about. We cannot picture his career as a ward council- 
man, as one who was sought after by capitalists and 
laborers alike when they desired to know what Jesus 
would do under certain circumstances. 

So interested became Gladden in municipal affairs of 
Columbus that, as a member of the City Council, he 
toiled to get cheaper and better transportation from the 
Street Railway Company, the natural gas contract was 
renewed upon better terms for the city, and a new water 
supply was secured, while proper drainage for the whole 
city next took place. He also organized the Municipal 
Voters’ League, which controlled the vote of two thou- 
sand five hundred people and secured better government 
for the people. 

Gladden’s failures!—It must not be presumed that 
Gladden publicly espoused these social and industrial 
causes without paying a price. In 1905 he rebuked the 
Board of Foreign Missions of the Congregational Church 


322 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


for accepting a gift of one hundred thousand dollars 
from the Standard Oil Company, and did this because he 
felt that the money by this company was not honestly 
acquired. His address, “Shall Ill-Gotten Gains Be 
Sought For Christian Purposes?” created a tremendous 
stir in American life. He paid for his courage. 

In 1886 he was called to become president of Western 
Reserve, a splendid university in Cleveland, Ohio, but 
because of a speech made about capital and labor in 
Cleveland this call was not renewed. Later on, in 1893, 
he was invited to become the president of Ohio State 
University, but because he strenuously opposed certain | 
fanatical and ignorant attacks which were being made un- 
justly upon the Roman Catholic Church of his day this 
offer was withdrawn. The Congregational Church of 
America honored itself by electing him “moderator” of 
its National Council in 1904. 

On a hot July morning I attended service in his church 
in Columbus, Ohio, where he had served his people so 
loyally and for so many years. He was no longer with 
them in the flesh; but upon the church calendar, the anni- 
versary of his death was noted, in the service the fra- 
grance of his memory was observed, and that his spirit 
still walked among the people was plainly showed by 
their abiding love for him. When friends thus think of 
a man after his departure such a man has not failed. One 
may enter his church in Springfield, Massachusetts, and 
in the great auditorium will be found a beautiful window 
dedicated to his memory—he who left that church so 
many years ago. Such an imperishable comradeship is 
not the sign of failure. 

Did not he himself, in concluding the story of his own 
life, say, “We turn our faces to the future with good hope 
in our hearts. There are great industrial problems be- 
fore us, but we shall work them out; there are battles 
to fight, but we shall win them. With all those who be- 
lieve in justice and the square deal, in kindness and good 


POLITICS AND INDUSTRY 323 


will, in a free field and a fair chance for every man, the 
stars in their courses are fighting, and their victory is 
sure’? 

A man of such pluck never fails—no, never. He 
builds for the ages. 


Stupy Topics 


1. What are the distinguishing features of a “progressive 
Christian”? How may one become a “progressive Christian”? 

2. What part should religion play in political affairs? What 
advantages accrue to the people when religion rules in the 
politics of their town or city? 

3. What part should religion play in industry? Could labor 
problems be solved more easily if religious motives dominated 
the interests of the opposing factors? Justify your answer. 

4. What responsibility do the newspapers bear to the political, 
industrial, and social affairs of their constituency? Discuss 
Washington Gladden’s relations with the newspaper world, and 
his efforts to make the newspapers serve the common good. 

5. What is the meaning of the term “applied Christianity” ? 
Show how Washington Gladden was a believer in and a fol- 
lower of “applied Christianity.” 


SUGGESTED READINGS 


Gladden, Washington—Recollections. Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany. 

Gladden, Washington—Being a Christian. 

Gladden, Washington—Social Facts and Forces. 


CHAPTER) XXXIT 
A PRESIDENT HELPS BUILDVTHE CHU INGn 


Priests, reformers, monks, prophets, scientists, busi- 
ness men, philanthropists, all have helped build the 
church; but princes, kings, and other rulers have not 
withheld aid from this lofty task and in this chapter we 
are to see how one who became a leader in politics counted 
it a great joy to do his part in upbuilding the church. 

At No. 20 East 20th Street, New York city, on Octo- 
ber 27, 1858, Theodore Roosevelt was born. His mother 
was a Southerner, and of Dutch ancestry was he on his 
father’s side of the family. As a little chap in starched 
dresses he loved to read Livingstone’s Missionary Travels 
in South Africa. He showed unusual insight into human 
nature. While the Civil War was on he ventured to pray 
for the Southern cause one night at his mother’s knee 
when he was a little vexed at her! She was a Southerner! 
Pheasants, peacocks, and monkeys adorned his backyard, 
and although he was very puny and afflicted with 
asthma so that he could not attend public school, yet he 
was the boss of the nursery. 

When he was twelve years old he determined to become 
strong, and, entering a gymnasium, used such power of 
will that his wish became a fact, as we shall presently 
see. 

Harvard.—He entered Harvard College in 1876, and 
since there were but eight hundred students attending this 
institution at this period of its life, Roosevelt discovered 
many friends, and became well known about the college, 
chiefly for his outspokenness. During his college course 
he faithfully taught a Sunday-school class of boys, and 
caused comment by applauding one boy who came to the 
class one Sunday morning with a black eye, together with 


324 


A PRESIDENT BUILDS 325 


the explanation that he secured it while fighting another 
boy who had called his sister names. Roosevelt congratu- 
lated the boy and gave him a dollar! With reddish side- 
whiskers and riding about the streets in a dogcart, Roose- 
velt must have made a picture. His repute as a boxer 
was well known. At graduation his good scholarship 
brought to him the coveted honor of being elected to mem- 
bership in Phi Beta Kappa. 

Entering political life——Having decided in his senior 
year to espouse the cause of better government, the col- 
lege graduate returned to New York city to live, and 
there joined a political club which held weekly meetings 
over a saloon. Though politics in New York at this time 
were in great disrepute, and either the business or pastime 
of liquor dealers, Roosevelt resolved to do what he could 
to better them, and in 1881 was elected to the New York 
Assembly. | 

Possessing no political influence at all, he arose one day 
in the Assembly and demanded the impeachment of Judge 
Westbrook for malfeasance in office. Enemies laughed 
at him, politicians of his own party patronizingly stated 
that upon further thought this callow youth would not 
press his case. On that day the Assembly refused to 
support his resolution regarding this matter, and it ap- 
peared to those unscrupulous demagogues that he had 
made a fool of himself. How little they knew Roosevelt! 
The next day, to the surprise of all, he rose and again 
made his demand of the Assembly. By this time, the 
newspapers were taking notice, and the public was ap- 
plauding. The Assembly again ignored him. The third 
day he again rose and made his demand, and so great was 
the public pressure brought to bear that the New York 
Assembly dared no longer refuse to heed this demand, 
and Roosevelt triumphed. 

Civil Service Commissioner.—In 1886 Roosevelt was 
nominated for mayor of New York city, but was de- 
feated at the election. 


326 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


His reputation was spreading and political “bosses” 
feared him, so for the purpose of getting him out of the 
way, they conspired to have him appointed as one of the 
Civil Service Commissioners in 1889. Two other easy- 
going gentlemen were upon the board at this time. 

Affairs in the United States were nothing to boast of 
when Roosevelt undertook this new duty. Andrew Jack- 
son had said, “To the victor belong the spoils’—and he 
had given governmental offices to his followers, regardless 
of their ability to administer them. His dictum was still 
largely practiced in Washington. 

Into this atmosphere young Roosevelt stepped. Soon 
every government officer learned that neither lying, 
“pull,” nor “influence” was of any avail in the Civil 
Service. As a result of nearly six years of service in 
this branch of the government, many of the opportuni- 
ties for scheming politicians to place political plunder at 
the disposal of their henchmen were eliminated. 

Police commissioner.—Feeling that his usefulness 
was ended in the Civil Service, Roosevelt permitted him- 
self to be appointed police commissioner of the city of 
New York in 1895. At this time the police system was 
desperately in need of a moral tonic. Roosevelt with 
that noble man of God, Jacob Riis, toured the vice dis- 
tricts and saw where evil bred and lurked. He visited the 
“Tenderloin,” otherwise known as “hell’s kitchen,’ and 
acquainted himself with what was the lowest in the life 
of the city and then went to work. All “pull” was torn 
out of the police system, root and branch, and the new 
commissioner saw to it that there was a “square deal for 
every man.” Medals were awarded on merit only; any 
officer who ruined his clothing while doing his duty at 
fires or in performing other,heroic deeds had it replaced 
free of charge. Vice and crime were hunted down with- 
out mercy, and with the exception of the administration 
of Colonel Arthur Woods, the police system of New York 
city never was cleaner, more honest or efficient. 


ALP PRESIDENT BUIEDS B27 


Spanish American War.—In 1897 Roosevelt was ap- 
pointed assistant secretary of the navy, but when the war 
broke out he resigned his post to organize the “Rough 
Riders” for service in Cuba. When the call went out, 
roughs, sports, college men, cow-punchers, professional 
gamblers—all kinds met at San Antonio, Texas, to enlist 
for the war. There was but one thing which united this 
motley throng—the spirit of Theodore Roosevelt. They 
had toiled with him, or learned of him, and when he 
called them to the colors they came as one man. The 
entire regiment saw hard service in Cuba, covered itself 
with glory, and achieved a place in the American 
imagination which it has held from that time to the 
very present. 

Life at Albany.—So great was Roosevelt’s fame at 
the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, that he was 
elected governor of New York. At this time Thomas 
C. Platt was the Republican leader of the State 
and undoubtedly thought he would continue to dictate 
the State policies to Roosevelt, as had previously been the 
case; but never was a man more mistaken, for after a 
preliminary battle, Roosevelt gave this gentleman to 
understand that the governor of the State of New York 
proposed to run his own business. 

Roosevelt used the same standards of honor here that 
he did in his other governmental services. As Jacob 
Riis so aptly put it, he was occupied “introducing the Ten 
Commandments into the government at Albany.” 

The President of the United States.—So menacing 
did such men as Platt find Roosevelt, the reform gov- 
ernor of New York, that they determined something 
must be done to get him out of the seat of power which 
was at that time in or near Albany. The Vice-Presidency 
of the United States has usually been a comfortable 
office in which men had much honor, but not overmuch 
direct contact with the affairs of the nation. To put the 
quietus on Roosevelt, Platt saw to it that he was nomi- 


328 BUILDERS: OF THE CHURCH 


nated Vice-President, with William McKinley as Presi- 
dent. He was elected to that office. 

While attending the Pan-American Exposition at Buf- 
falo in 1901, President McKinley was foully assassinated 
by a fanatical anarchist. At the time Roosevelt was climb- 
ing Mount Marcy; but when it was certain the President 
could not live, he raced to the nearest railroad and covered 
the distance to Buffalo—four hundred and forty miles— 
in an incredibly short time. Arriving, he found McKinley 
had died, and immediately was sworn in as President of 
the United States of America. The man whom the pol- 
iticians thought out of the way had become the first citizen 
in the nation. | 

Upon entering this great office, Roosevelt announced 
that he would keep all the old Cabinet to help him with 
his new responsibilities. He needed all the aid he could. 
get, for conditions within America were no cause for 
boastfulness. Class consciousness was becoming more 
and more pronounced and the dissatisfaction of the com- 
mon man for the government proportionately increased. 
It was a happy day for America when this man of the 
gospel of the “square deal” came into power. That 
canny statesman, Viscount Bryce, said, “Theodore Roose- 
velt is the hope of American politics’—and it was largely 
true. 

Great wealth was endeavoring to dominate the govern- 
ment of America, colossal monopolies were rapidly de- 
veloping, with the consequent centering of the wealth of 
the land in the hands of the few. 

Now, Roosevelt held strong with the “plain people,” 
and since he had faced the fury of “big business” while 
in Albany when he fought through the Assembly a bill 
to tax public corporations holding public franchise, and 
since he had taken steps to investigate and better control 
the large insurance companies capitalized in that State, 
the opposition which confronted him was not new. He 
promptly dubbed these influential men who began to 


A PRESIDENT BUILDS 329 


threaten the government under his administration, as 
“plutocrats.”” Immediately he took up the cudgels to see 
that these opulent citizens should be as amenable to the 
law as the poor. He determined that neither rich nor 
poor, capital nor labor should dictate to the government 
of the United States. His attack upon these interests 
was vigorous. He used plain talk and goaded them to 
fury with such phrases as “malefactors of great wealth,” 
and then proceeded to call them “undesirable citizens.” 

In the great battle for the control of the railroads of 
America Roosevelt condemned both parties for the war- 
fare which almost brought upon the nation an industrial 
collapse. Of course these policies which sought to apply 
the law to all men without any discrimination were bitterly 
opposed. Spies were put upon the President’s trail to 
get evidence against him; he was accused of setting men 
to break open desks in New York city to get evidence 
therefrom! The best “alienists” in the country analyzed 
everything the President did in order to prove him in- 
competent to hold public office. Stories of faultiest 
slander were bandied about. But Roosevelt went right 
ahead. He formed with the great American public his 
“Ananias Club” and took great delight in placing men 
in it; and before his administration was done such 
statutes were placed upon the books at Washington as 
curbed the inordinate power of the “‘plutocrats” and 
made them subservient to the law. The anti-trust laws 
passed at this time did more than any other fact to 
appease the steadily mounting wrath of the public and 
save us from an industrial revolution. 

Gulf between capital and labor.—For some years the 
gulf twixt capital and labor had been widening. Roose- 
velt did not hedge in this matter but emphatically de- 
clared, “The labor unions shall have a square deal, and 
corporations shall have a square deal.” 

When the great coal strike of 1902 threatened the 
country, he did not remain supine, but arbitrated the 


330 BUILBDERS*@OP DHE GLU RGEH 


matter and brought peace and production. Again, in 
1907, when a coal strike was renewed, certain labor men 
violated the law and were tried, but because of influence 
in the court were acquitted. Roosevelt promptly classed 
them with the “undesirable citizens” along with the 
plutocrats and the rest. Labor unions resented this state- 
ment and became angry, and then the President bluntly 
told them that they were not fair, they wanted the square 
deal for themselves only—an attitude too much char- 
acteristic of labor unions throughout their history. With 
so even a hand did he dispense justice that at the end of 
his administration one thing was sure: the government 
of the United States was believed to be superior to any 
single group of citizens within it. 

The Roosevelt family—In a man’s family relations 
a large part of his character may be read. In 1889, about 
thirty miles outside of New York city, Roosevelt built 
his home upon Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, and in 
this home was reared such a family as may well make 
every American proud. Within this family circle this 
man knew of the deep griefs that come, for in 1884 he 
lost his mother, and then his wife, within twenty-four 
hours. When he went to live at Sagamore Hill he had 
learned how to appreciate his home. The house was full 
of boys and girls. Roosevelt insisted that his boys should 
learn obedience, manliness, and honesty. The violation 
of these virtues he would not tolerate. 

When he was in the White House he always had break- 
fast alone with his family, and never would allow this 
custom to be broken. He insisted that the newspapers 
respect the privacy of his family life, and any reporter 
who would print any news about his wife or children 
was informed that he would no longer be permitted to 
interview the President. At dinner in the Roosevelt 
home all kinds of people met. Lords and dukes were 
there with Jacob Riis or Bill Sewell, the ranchman—and 
all were welcomed, 


A PRESIDENT BUILDS 331 


And Roosevelt’s comradeship with his children is 
almost classic. Despite all the hurry which came into 
his life he always found time to play with his youngsters 
and to read with them. Often he put them to bed him- 
self, and then a good pillow fight was sure to take place. 
And when he was away from his children—such letters 
as he wrote! Theodore Roosevelt’s Letters to His Chil- 
dren will some day be accounted among the American 
classics. When away from home he wrote of lizards, 
cats, dogs, bears, bobcats, and a host of other things too. 
He remembered their birthdays, told them about his 
adventures, and, above all, took the time to draw pictures 
of rabbits, owls, turtles, and of the bears he shot. He 
drew pictures of himself with all his children pointing 
their fingers at him and calling him a “tyrant king.” 
Somehow he always found time for these illustrated 
letters, and how the children must have enjoyed them! 
And although he never said anything about it in public, 
when Quentin, his youngest son, was shot in an air battle 
in France, it quite broke his father’s heart. The great- 
ness of America is: that she can produce such fathers 
as was Theodore Roosevelt. 

The body vigorous.—Early in life Roosevelt de- 
termined to own a strong body, and he fought for it 
throughout his career. When very young, while upon 
a trip to Europe he climbed the Matterhorn and later 
Mont Blanc in the Alps. In 1883 he went West, and 
everyone knows of Roosevelt’s activities out upon the 
ranch in those wild days. In the blizzards he rounded 
cattle, he gained repute as a good horseman, became 
a good shot and a fine hunter. He never picked a 
quarrel while out West, but never avoided one. He 
proved his dislike for obscenity and nastiness and would 
not allow it among his comrades. He loathed a bully and 
a coward. There were many boasting “bad men” in the 
West in those days, but Roosevelt feared none of them, 
and on several occasions felled them with a sledge- 


332 BUILDERS OF THE CHURCH 


hammer blow of his fist. When he became sheriff, horse 
thieves whom others dared not arrest, he brought to 
justice. 

The Christian warrior.—Roosevelt was a Christian. 
Fe read his Bible and took it with him upon his hunting 
trips. He was a member of the church and never failed 
to attend it and to support it liberally. When President 
the day might be never so wet and stormy, but Roosevelt 
walked to church very humbly, took his place upon the 
level with his fellows; and entered heartily into the serv- 
ice. 

The test of his religion was the thoroughness with 
which he believed in the brotherhood of man. In the 
face of Southern criticism he invited Booker T. Wash- 
ington to dine with him at the White House and discussed 
ways and means for helping the Negro better himself. 

Roosevelt associated with ministers, and I have seen 
him have “the time of his life’ while with them. . He 
believed they were doing the right thing for the American 
commonwealth. He abominated a snob. Once, after 
talking in a little New England town, he stepped aboard 
his train to leave, a little boy shouted, “Hurrah for 
Teddy!” Some men would have frowned upon such a 
violation of courtesy, but not so Roosevelt, for, while 
great embarrassment prevailed elsewhere, I saw him 
break into a merry laugh. 

From his very youth Roosevelt recognized the damn- 
ing curse of alcohol. In.1912 George A. Newett stated 
in the Iron Ore, “Roosevelt lies and curses in a most dis- 
gusting way; he gets drunk too, and that not infre- 
quently, and all his intimates know about it.” Roosevelt 
sued this editor, and in the public trial a host of wit- 
nesses, such as Dr. Lambert, General Leonard Wood, 
and Jacob Riis, testified that they had known him from 
his youth up and that he was temperate and clean. He 
won his case. When national prohibition was being 
agitated, Roosevelt, seeing clearly what a blessing it 


A PRESIDENT BUILDS 333 


would be to this alcohol-poisoned generation, stanchly 
advocated its adoption. Many who profess to be his 
followers possess not the insight which he owned when 
they deal with this moral reform. 

The triumph.—When the Great War came, Roosevelt 
could not go to France. The fever he contracted in 
Brazil never left him; he underwent an operation for 
mastoids, and Quentin’s death, July 14, 1918, was a great 
blow. In the rush and bustle of the Great War not many 
of his friends realized how weak of body he was be- 
coming. His last public appearance was in honor of a 
Negro hospital unit which was going to the front. Late 
in 1918 he went to a hospital for treatment, but, to his 
great joy, he was permitted to return home to spend 
Christmas of 1918. 

January 5, 1919, as he retired he said to his servant, 
“Put out the light, please.’ These were his last words. 
He died during the night. They buried him in the little 
cemetery in Oyster Bay, and though it was a gloomy day, 
the sun streamed in upon his coffin as they lowered it 
into the grave. Vice-President Marshall fittingly said, 
“Death had to take him sleeping, for if Roosevelt had 
been awake there would have been a fight.” 

When this builder of the church died, and when his 
classmate at Harvard, Mr. John Woodbury, learned of 
his death, he wrote to his fellow students of former days, 
this passage from The Pilgrim’s Progress: 

“After this it was noised abroad that Mr. Valiant-for- 
truth was taken with a summons by the same post as the 
other, and had this for a token, that the summons was 
true, “That his pitcher was broken at the fountain.’ 
When he understood it, he called for his friends and 
told them of it. Then he said, ‘I am going to my Father’s, 
and though with great difficulty I have got hither, yet I 
do not repent me of all the trouble I have been at to 
arrive where [ am. My sword I give to him that shall 
succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill 


334 BULEDERS OF yPHEvCreRG@ i 


to him that can get it. My marks and sears 1 carry with 
me, to be a witness for me that I have fought his battles 
who now will be my rewarder.’” 

And so this Christian statesman, hated by evildoers, 
loved by those who strive for the better day, the valiant 
builder of the church, was laid to rest, but his vital spirit 
marches on, and the air of America is better because he 
helped cleanse it. He forever showed the world that 
Jesus Christ’s spirit could be supreme in the state and 
bring nought but happiness. 


Stupy Topics 


1. What justification is there for including Theodore Roose- 
velt in the number of builders of the church? 

2. Enumerate the distinguishing features of Roosevelt’s 
Christianity and show how they were demonstrated in every- 
thing he did for the good of humanity. . 

3. Recall the outstanding qualities of builders of the church 
that have been studied throughout this course. How many of 
these qualities do you possess? 

4. As a builder of the church in the making, what is to be 
your task? How are you to prepare yourself for it? With what 
ideal of Christianity will you enter upon it and how will you 
accomplish it? 

SUGGESTED READINGS 

Thayer, William Roscoe—Theodore Roosevelt. 

Roosevelt, Theodore—Theodore Roosevelt’s Letters to His 
Children. 

Roosevelt, Theodore—Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiog- 
raphy. 

Reisner, C. F.—Roosevelt’s Religion. 


CoNCLUSION 


Thus have we seen the builders at work for over nine- 
teen hundred years. Some have worked upon the 
foundations and some upon the roof. But the bastions 
of the church are firm and its pinnacles reach toward 
high heaven because of these men and women. They 
withheld not themselves even to the laying down of their 


Peabo Nie OLED S 335 


lives that the church might live. The Church of God 
is here by no happenstance. It lives because man toiled 
up hard steeps and ventured into gloomy dales. It is 
here because the followers of Christ dared nail them- 
selves to their own crosses that the church might live. 
He who enjoys the benefits of a happy home, a free 
nation, a generous education, a lofty circle of friendship 
is under tribute to the church and to its builders. It is 
because they have done these things and made these 
sacrifices that we have our heritage intact. 

We are all under debt to the past. There is but one 
way to repay what we owe. The church is not yet com- 
pleted. In gratitude to those who have gone before we 
may fling ourselves into the task of continuing their 
work. We too may build. Because of their experi- 
ence we should build better and nobler. He who refuses 
to build is not worthy these sacrifices out of the past; 
and if he continues in his refusal, his character will 
degenerate and finally slough out. He who builds as 
best he may shall, with the other craftsmen, “shine with 
the glory of the sun, and live from everlasting to ever- 
lasting.” For the church is immortal and lives forever 
and forever. ) 


INDEX 


Abelard, Peter, 53 

Africa, 186-193, 309 
Ambrose, 32 
Anti-Semitism, 56 
Arminian controversy, 106 
Australia, 308 


Babylonian captivity, 69 
Bible translations, 90, 319 


Calvin, John, 94, 106, 117 
Carr’s Lane, 281 
Caterva, 35 
Catharites, 59 
Cencius, 45 
Century Magazine, 295 
Chartist movement, 221 
Child life in England, 221, 285 
Civic improvements, 

181, 199; 283, 298, 321 
Civil War, 261-265 
Clairvaux, 52 
Cleveland, Grover, 300, 302 
Constantine, 22 
Copyright Act, 296 
Cotton, John, 126 
Council of Constance, 71 
Crusade, 55 
Czecho-Slovakia, 74 


Darwin, Charles, 208 
Diet of Worms, 88 
Donatists, 35 


East Indies, 208 
Evolution, 209-212 


Foreign missionary enterprises, 122, 185 
Francis of Assisi, 60 


Graft, 317 


Hampton Institute, 270 
Henry IV, 45 
Hippo, Bishop of, 34 
Hippo, Siege of, 36 
Hussite wars, 73 


India, 309 
Indulgences, 86 
Industrial religion, 319 


Jesuits, 118 


Kindergarten, 297 
King Philip’s war, 131 
Kiugswood, 142 
Knights Templar, 52 


Loevestein, 108 : 
London Missionary Society, 219, 282 


° 


re 


Luther, Martin, 81 


36 


Lynching, 274-276 


Mani, 30 

Mann, Horace, 168 

Martha houses, 120 

Mary, Queen of Scots, 99 

Methodists, 137, 139, 155-158, 305, 310 
Monasticism, 50, 80 

Mount Hermon, 256 

Music in religion, 254 


New England confederacy, 129 
Nicea, Council of, 22 
Northfield, 248, 256 


Owen, Isaac, 306 


Parsees, 310 

Paul, 13, 16, 18,.19 
Poetry im religion, 292, 300 
Political religion, 317, 326 
Prejudice, 56, 322 
Princeton University, 150 
Prohibition, 246, 332 
Protestantism, 92 
Providence, R. I., 127, 132 
Puritans, 125 


Quakers, 128 


Reformation, 98 
Reigersbergen, Mary von, 106 


Salvation Army, 229-238 
Sankey, Ira D., 251 
Savonarola, 67 
Scientific explorations, 207-212 
Scriptural Knowledge Institution for 
Home and Abroad, The, 220 
Shaw, Robert Gould, 276 
Slavery, 169, 178, 188, 259 
Social gospel, 168, 197-201 
Society of Jesus, 118, 121 
South America, 207, 311 
Spanish American War, 327 
Stanley, Henry M., 192 
Sunday schools, 180, 250 
Syrianus, 25 


Tenement House Commission, 298-299 
Tetzel, John, 86 : 
Tuskegee, 270-273 
Tweed, William, 317 


Waldenses, 59 

Wiclif, John, 68 

Winchester, Caleb T., 300 

Woman suffrage, 245 

Woman’s Christian 
Union, 244 


Young Men’s Christian Association,25! 


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